Araiostegia divaricata (Blume) M. Kato; A. divaricata var. formosana (Hayata) M. Kato; Davallia amabilis Ching; D. austrosinica Ching; D. divaricata var. orientale (C. Christensen ex Y. C. Wu, K. K. Wong & Pong) Tardieu & C. Christensen; D. formosana Hayata; D. orientalis C. Christensen ex Y. C. Wu, K. K. Wong & Pong; Wibelia divaricata (Blume) M. Kato & Tsutsumi; W. formosana (Hayata) M. Kato & Tsutsumi.

Rhizome 10-15 mm in diam. (without scales), not white waxy. Scales brown or red-brown without pale border, narrowed evenly toward apex, curling backward or not, basifixed with cordate base and much overlapping lobes, 5-20 × 2-4 mm, without multiseptate hairs, toothed. Stipe pale, adaxially grooved, 15-60 cm, glabrous or with few scales; lamina compound, tripinnate toward base and in middle part, deltoid and broadest toward base, 55-100 × 40-90 cm, glabrous, not or slightly dimorphic. Longest petiolules 4-35 mm; pinnae deltoid; longest pinnae 8-45 × 5-30 cm; pinnules of at least larger pinnae anadromous, deltoid; longest pinnules 70-200 × 40-110 mm; ultimate pinnae linear-oblong or narrowly ovate, lobed halfway toward midrib or only shallowly lobed; ultimate segments 5-27 × 2-6 mm. Rachis adaxially distinctly grooved (often with a groove at either side). Rachises and costae glabrous. Margins of each pinna not thickened. Veins in sterile ultimate lobes pinnate (or forked in very narrow lobes), reaching margin; false veins absent. Sori separate, borne several on a segment, at forking point of veins; indusium also attached along sides, pouch-shaped, oblong, ± as wide as long, ca. 1 × 1 mm, upper margin not elongated, truncate or slightly rounded, separated from or even with lamina margin; lamina generally extending into a tooth at both sides of a sorus.

Although FRPS (6(1): 183. 1999) and Fl. Taiwan (ed. 2, 1: 188. 1994) recognized Davallia formosana as a separate species, the type of D. formosana fits well within the variability of D. divaricata.

Generally epiphytic, sometimes epilithic on limestone, rarely terrestrial, mostly in dense forests, sometimes on dry places; sea level to 1900 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Pacific islands (Solomon Islands)].