Gymnogramma decurrenti-alata Hooker, Sp. Fil. 5: 142, t. 294. 1864; Athyrium decurrenti-alatum (Hooker) Copeland; Cornopteris tsangii Ching; Diplazium decurrenti-alatum (Hooker) C. Christensen; D. hookerianum Koidzumi; Dryopteris decurrenti-alata (Hooker) C. Christensen; Leptogramma decurrenti-alata (Hooker) J. Smith; Nephrodium decurrenti-alatum (Hooker) Diels; Phegopteris decurrenti-alata (Hooker) Christ.

Plants summer-green. Rhizome slender, creeping, dark brown, ca. 5 mm in diam., apex with brown-lanceolate scales; fronds approximate. Fertile frond up to 80 cm; stipe dark stramineous, up to 40 cm, base with scales, upward subglabrous, grooved on adaxial side; lamina 1- or 2-pinnate below apex, ovate-elliptic, up to 40 × 28 cm, apex acuminate; pinnae up to 10 pairs, ascending, distant, lanceolate, base subtruncate, nearly symmetrical, apex acuminate; lower pinnae larger, elliptic-lanceolate, up to 15 × 4 cm, pinnatisect or 1-pinnate; pinna lobes or pinnules ovate or narrowly elliptic, up to 3 × 1 cm, margin pinnatilobate, sparsely dentate, or repand, apex obtuse; veins visible, veinlets simple or forked, ending into lobe margin. Lamina herbaceous, brown when dry, hairy or not. Sori shortly linear or narrowly elliptic, medial or inframedial. Spores semicircular in equatorial view, perispore hyaline, with rugate, granular projections. x = 40.

Cornopteris decurrenti-alata is variable in the shape and dissection of fronds.

Plants having fronds with dense multicellular short nodose hairs on abaxial side of the rachis, costae, and midribs (n = 80) have been named Cornopteris decurrenti-alata f. pillosella (H. Itô) W. M. Chu (Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 3(2): 358. 1999; C. decurrenti-alata var. pillosella H. Itô, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 52: 588. 1938; Athyrium decurrenti-alatum var. pillosellum (H. Itô) Ohwi; A. unifurcatum C. Christensen var. harryanum C. Christensen; C. glandulosopilosa S. F. Wu; C. likiangensis Ching; C. musashiensis Nakai; 毛叶角蕨 mao ye jiao jue): valley forests, beside shaded streamlets; 200-2800 m. Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan].

Valley forests, beside shaded streamlets; 200-2800 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, N India, Japan, Korea, Nepal].