Athyrium cystopteroides D. C. Eaton, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 4: 110. 1858; Asplenium cystopteroides (D. C. Eaton) Hooker; Dryopteris abbreviatipinna Makino & Ogata; D. cystopteroides (D. C. Eaton) Kodama ex Tagawa; D. gracilescens (Blume) Kuntze var. abbreviata Kodama; Lastrea cystopteroides (D. C. Eaton) Copeland; Thelypteris cystopteroides (D. C. Eaton) Ching.

Plants 7-20 cm tall. Rhizomes long creeping, branching mixed and becoming feltlike, with sparse dark brown lanceolate small scales. Fronds approximate; stipes 3-5(-13) cm, slender, dark stramineous, subglabrous; laminae lanceolate, 4-7 × ca. 1.5 cm, not tapering to bases, bipinnatipartite, acuminate and pinnatifid at apices; pinnae 7-10 pairs, alternate, spreading, stalks short, proximal pair of similar shape as distal ones, 7-10 × 6-7 mm, subtruncate at bases, pinnatifid nearly to costae, obtuse at apices; segments 2 or 3 pairs, oblong, ca. 3 × ca. 1.5 mm, proximal pair usually irregularly bilobate. Veinlets evident, simple, ca. 3 pairs per segment. Laminae herbaceous, dark green when dry, subglabrous abaxially, adaxially with sparse appressed short hairs along grooves on costae. Sori orbicular or oblong, medium-sized, 2-4 pairs per segment, dorsifixed slightly above middle of veinlets; indusia large, orbicular-reniform, brown, thickly membranous, occasionally with few grayish white setae, persistent.

On rocks in forests. Along the coast, offshore islands of Fujian, Taiwan [Japan, Korea].