Aspidium caryotideum Wallich ex Hooker & Greville, Icon. Filic. 1: t. 69. 1828; A. falcatum (Linnaeus f.) Swartz var. caryotideum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Baker; Cyrtomium caducum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) T. Moore subvar. hastosum (Christ) H. Léveillé; C. caryotideum f. attenuatum (T. Moore) Ching; C. caryotideum var. attenuatum T. Moore; C. caryotideum f. grossedentatum Ching; C. caryotideum f. hastosum (Christ) Ching; C. caryotideum subvar. hastosum Christ; C. falcatum (Linnaeus f.) C. Presl var. caryotideum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Beddome; C. falcatum subvar. hastosum Christ; Dryopteris caryotideum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Underwood ex A. Heller; Polystichum caryotideum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Diels; P. falcatum (Linnaeus f.) Diels var. caryotideum (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Matsumune.

Plants 30-60 cm tall. Rhizome erect, densely covered with lanceolate blackish brown scales. Stipe stramineous, 16-32 cm, 2-3 mm in diam. at base, lower portion densely scaly; scales blackish brown or brown with a central blackish brown stripe, ovate or lanceolate, margins ciliate. Lamina oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 25-48 × 12-18 cm, base not contracted or slightly contracted, 1-imparipinnate, apex obtuse; rachis with sparse linear brown scales. Lateral pinnae 3-7 pairs, alternate, slightly ascendant, shortly stalked, deltoid-lanceolate, often falcate; middle pinnae 9-14 × 2.5-3.5 cm, base broadly cuneate or rounded-cuneate, acroscopic margins with long, acute auricles, margins serrulate, apex acuminate and often caudate; terminal pinna ovate or rhombic-ovate, forked or trifurcate, 10-16 × 8-11 cm; hard papery, abaxially with sparse lanceolate brown microscales, glabrous adaxially; venation pinnate, slightly raised abaxially, indistinct adaxially, veinlets anastomosing to form multiple rows of areoles on each side of midrib, each areole in proximal row with 1 included veinlet, each areole in other rows with 2 or 3 included veinlets. Sori throughout abaxial surface of pinnae; indusia white or light brown, margins toothed.

Cyrtomium caryotideum is an apomictic species.

Forests; 600-2700 m. Chongqing, S Gansu, N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi (Jinggangshan), S Shaanxi, SW and W Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang (Bomi, Gyirong, Mêdog), Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam].