Polypodium eilophyllum Diels, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29: 204. 1900, based on P. involutum Baker, J. Bot. 27: 177. 1889, not Desvaux (1811), nor Mettenius (1856); Lepisorus neolewisii K. H. Shing; L. pseudolewisii K. H. Shing.

Plants 15-37 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, strong, 2-3 mm in diam., densely scaly, sometimes becoming naked with age; scales spreading, dark brown with narrow, transparent, colorless margins, iridescent, lanceolate with broadly ovate base, 2-3.5 × 0.5-1.2 mm; lumina mostly opaque, small, square at base, oblong at apex, cell walls thickened. Fronds remote or closely spaced; stipe straw-colored, frond sessile or stipe up to 2(-3) cm, 1.1-1.5 mm in diam., sparsely scaly; lamina reddish brown, gray-brown, or greenish on both surfaces when dried, linear, 12-30(-40) × 0.2-0.4 cm, usually widest 1/3 from base, herbaceous or thinly papery, abaxially with sparse adnate scales, base attenuate, decurrent, margins strongly or slightly revolute when dried, apex shortly acuminate; costa raised on both sides, veinlets slightly visible. Sori restricted to distal 1/3-1/2 of lamina, slightly closer to costa, orbicular or elliptic, 1-2 mm in diam., protruding to give lamina moniliform appearance; paraphyses brown, orbicular, 0.2-0.3 mm in diam., margin entire; central lumina large, transparent, entire.

A distinct species in Lepisorus by the spreading and partly transparent rhizome scales, and the linear, moniliform, thickly leathery lamina.

Material of Lepisorus eilophyllus was variously treated by Christ as Polypodium lewisii Baker (Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Soc. Ital., n.s., 4: 97. 1897; and by Diels, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29: 204. 1901), P. lineare Thunberg (1784), not N. L. Burman (1768) (Bull. Soc. Bot. France 52(Mém. 1): 14. 1905), and P. contortum (Christ) Christ (Bot. Gaz. 51: 347. 1911).

On tree trunks or rocks in forests; 1000-3300 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [N India, Thailand].