Rhizomes short, stout, erect, apex densely clothed with dark brown, lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 42-85 cm; stipe pale stramineous, 20-45 cm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., base densely scaly, upward glabrate; lamina 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, broadly ovate, 25-45 × 24-30 cm, base not narrowed, apex abruptly narrowed; pinnae ca. 15 pairs, alternate, approximate, oblique, stalked, basal pinnae larger, 20-24 × ca. 7 cm at middle, broadly lanceolate, base slightly narrowed, pinnate-pinnatifid, apex long acuminate; pinnules ca. 20 pairs, ascending, lower pinnules conspicuously shortened, 1.5-2 cm × 4-6 mm; middle pinnules lanceolate, 2.5-2.8 cm × ca. 6 mm, base narrowly truncate, somewhat auriculate on acroscopic side, margin pinnatifid 1/2-2/3, apex long acuminate; pinnule segments 8-12 pairs, oblong, 2.5-3 × 1.8-2.2 mm, apex acute with long teeth; veins visible on both surfaces, 2- or 3-forked or simple in segments, but pinnate on basal acroscopic segments. Lamina herbaceous when dried, pale green, glabrate; rachis and costae abaxially stramineous, with sparse linear-lanceolate small scales, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely shortly hairy, with subulate spines on adaxial side at base of costa or costule. Sori elliptic, biseriate on both sides of costules; indusia brown, elliptic, occasionally J-shaped, membranous, erose at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds, with granular ornamentation.

● Forests; 1100-2300 m. Shaanxi, W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.