Plants ca. 70 cm tall. Rhizome erect, short, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., apex with brown scales. Fronds clustered; stipe dark brownish on lower parts, slightly lustrous, ca. 30 cm × 2 mm, slightly flat, upper part of stipes and rachises and costae blue-green, slightly lustrous, glabrous; lamina 2(or 3)-pinnatipartite, oblong-ovate in outline, ca. 45 × 20 cm; lateral pinnae ca. 9 pairs, decumbent, lower subopposite, shortly stalked, upper subopposite or alternate, sessile, broadly lanceolate, 13-15 × 4-5 cm, basally rounded-cuneate, pectinately divided to narrowly winged costae, apex acuminate and lobate; basal pair of pinnae basiscopically branched near base, branch similar to main part of pinna but smaller; segments ca. 25 pairs, alternate, slightly decumbent, contiguous or narrowly separated, broadly linear and straight, 20-30 × 4-5 mm, basally slightly expanded, margins entire, apex mucronate or subobtuse; terminal pinna similar to lateral pinnae but with stipe ca. 1 cm; costae grooved with flat spines on both sides, midvein with spiculate spinules; veins conspicuous on both surfaces, decumbent, 2-forked at base, pair of opposite veins at segment base extending up to margin of incision; lamina blue-green, thinly herbaceous when dried, pinnae abaxially glandular along both sides of rachis.

● Limestone soils; 600-2000 m. Guizhou (Pingtang), Hunan (Shimen), Yunnan.