Nephrodium gracilescens (Blume) Hooker var. hirsutipes C. B. Clarke, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Bot. 1: 514. 1880; Coryphopteris hirsutipes (C. B. Clarke) Holttum; Dryopteris gracilescens (Blume) Kuntze var. chinensis Christ; D. hirsutipes (C. B. Clarke) C. Christensen; Lastrea hirsutipes (C. B. Clarke) Beddome; Thelypteris hirsutipes (C. B. Clarke) Ching.

Plants 35-60 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, strong, cylindric. Fronds clustered; stipes 10-20(-30) cm, proximal part dark brown, bases with dense grayish brown multicellular spreading acicular long hairs (when dry easily fallen) and few dark brown lanceolate scales, distally dark stramineous and subglabrous; laminae narrowly oblong, 25-30 × 9-14 cm, slightly tapering to bases, pinnate-pinnatifid, acuminate and pinnatifid at apices; pinnae 20-25 pairs, alternate, spreading, proximal 3 or 4 pairs shortened; middle pinnae lanceolate, 5-8 × 1-1.5 cm, bases truncate, symmetrical, pinnatifid nearly to costae, apices caudate-acuminate; segments 15-18 pairs, spreading, rectangular, 4.5-6.5 × 2-3 mm, entire or slightly undulate at margins, rounded at apices. Veins visible on both sides, lateral veins simple, 5-8 pairs per segment, proximal pair arising from bases of or slightly above costules. Laminae herbaceous, dark green when dry, abaxially with denser reddish purple spherical glands and costae and veins with denser multicellular acicular hairs, adaxially spreading appressed pubescent throughout; rachises stramineous and sparsely pubescent on both sides. Sori orbicular, dorsifixed at middle of lateral veins, 1-5 pairs per segment; indusia large, orbicular-reniform, thickly membranous, brown, glabrous or occasionally sparsely shortly setaceous.

Seasonal rain forests or mixed forests on mountains; 1400-1600 m. SE Yunnan [N India, Myanmar].