Aspidium nigripes Blume, Enum. Pl. Javae 2: 162. 1828; Asplenium nigripes (Blume) Hooker; A. tozanense Hayata; Athyrium aristulatum Copeland; A. tozanense (Hayata) Hayata.

Rhizomes shortly erect, apex clothed with brown, lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds up to (15-)35(-50) cm; stipe stramineous, (8-)10(-18) cm, 1-3 mm in diam., base similarly scaly; lamina 2-pinnate with pinnatipartite pinnules, narrowly ovate to oblong-lanceolate, (8-)15-25(-35) × (3.5-) 6(-14) cm at middle, base hardly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae 10-15 pairs, alternate, spreading or ascending, shortly stalked, deltoid-lanceolate, up to (2-)3(-7) × 1-1.2(-3) cm at base, apex obtuse to acuminate; pinnules 5-8 pairs, spreading or oblique, lower 2 or 3 pairs of pinnules separate from each other, upper pinnules decurrent and adnate to wing of costa, ovate, base subcuneate, somewhat inequilateral, apex obtuse-rounded; basal acroscopic pinnules larger, 6(-26) × 4.5-8 mm, biserrate to shallowly lobed at margin; other pinnae smaller, with triangular teeth at margin; veins pinnate in pinnules, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, simple (often forked in basal acroscopic pinnules). Lamina thinly herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, glabrate; rachis and costae stramineous, sometimes slightly purplish, with dense brownish short hairs abaxially, with needlelike spines on adaxial side at base of costa and costule. Sori orbicular-reniform, horseshoe-shaped, J-shaped, or elliptic, 2 or 3 pairs per pinnule, medial; indusia brown, orbicular-reniform, horseshoe-shaped, J-shaped, or elliptic, membranous, ciliate at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds, with granular ornamentation. 2n = 80, 160 (4× apomictic).

Wet areas of valleys in evergreen broad-leaved forests, coniferous and mixed forests; 1200-2800 m. Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [N India, Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, N Vietnam].