Aspidium sieboldii Van Houtte ex Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Bot. Lips. 87. 1856.

Plants 0.5-1 m tall. Rhizome erect, short, stout; scales of rhizome and lower part of stipe dense, pale brown, lanceolate. Fronds caespitose; stipe dark stramineous or ferruginous, 20-60 cm × 2-5 mm, subglabrous upward; lamina oblong or deltoid-ovate, 25-40 × ca. 20 cm, once imparipinnate; pinnae 1-4 pairs, broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 15-20 × 2.5-3.5(-6) cm, base rounded or rounded-cuneate, slightly inequilateral, shortly stalked, apex acuminate, terminal pinna similar but larger and with longer stalks than lower pinnae, pinnae entire or incised-serrate. Lamina thickly leathery, glabrous adaxially, rarely with filiform scales; veins indistinct, pinnate, veinlets simple or forked, 4-6 in pinnate groups, basal one of each group at distal side shorter, remainder extending toward margin. Sori abaxial in middle of veinlets, in 3 or 4 irregular rows along both sides of costa; indusia reniform, entire.

Forests; 400-900 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan].