Nephrodium papilio C. Hope, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 12: 625. 1899; Christella papilio (C. Hope) Holttum; Dryopteris papilio (C. Hope) C. Christensen; Thelypteris papilio (C. Hope) K. Iwatsuki.

Plants 60-120 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, including stipe bases with brown ovate-lanceolate scales. Fronds clustered; stipes 10-20 cm, dark stramineous or reddish; laminae 40-110 × 20-30 cm, bases gradually narrowed, apices acuminate to caudate; lateral pinnae 30-40 pairs, sessile, proximal 5-10 pairs gradually shortened, triangular, often hastate with basal segment elongate on both sides of rachises; middle pinnae linear-lanceolate, 10-18 × 1.5-2 cm, bases truncate, lobed 2/5-1/2 toward costae, apices long acuminate; segments 20-25 pairs on middle pinnae, oblong, 3-5 × 3-4 mm (basal acroscopic one slightly longer), entire, obtuse at apices; veinlets 5-8 pairs, proximal pair anastomosing, next 1-1.5 pairs running to sinus membrane. Laminae papery, grayish green when dried, adaxially with sparse acicular hairs along costae and veins, abaxial surface subglabrous. Sori orbicular, medial; indusia shortly hairy. Sporangia bearing large reddish orange spherical glands on stalks. Spores echinate. 2n = 72, 216.

Wet places in forests, on rocks in streams or beside streams; 500-2400 m. S Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sri Lanka].