Pleopeltis thunbergianus Kaulfuss, Wesen Farrenkr. 113. 1827, based on Polypodium lineare Thunberg in Murray, Syst. Veg., ed. 14, 934. 1784, not N. L. Burman (1768); Drynaria subspathulata Hooker; Lepisorus calcifer Ching & Z. Y. Liu; L. linearifolius Ching & Z. Y. Liu; L. myriosorus Ching; L. nanchuanensis Ching; L. pygmaeus Ching & Z. Y. Liu; L. simulans Ching & Z. Y. Liu; L. thunbergianus var. subspathulatus (Hooker) Ching; Pleopeltis linearis T. Moore var. thunbergianum (Kaulfuss) Takeda; ?Polypodium lineare var. abbreviatum Christ; P. lineare var. subspathulatum (Hooker) Takeda.

Plants 8-20 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, 1.5-2.5 mm in diam., densely scaly when young, later naked; scales brown, lanceolate, 2-4 × 0.4-1 mm wide, margin usually denticulate, opaque except for marginal 1 or 2 rows of transparent lumina. Fronds 0.5-2 cm apart; stipe straw-colored, 1-3(-5) cm, ca. 1 mm in diam., base with 4 vascular bundles arranged in a rectangle; lamina yellowish green or greenish to brown, linear-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, (5-)10-18 × 0.5-1.3 cm, widest 1/3 from base, leathery or thinly leathery, with sparse scattered, opaque or transparent leaf scales, base attenuate, decurrent, apex acuminate; costa raised on both sides, veinlets obscure. Sori restricted to distal 1/2 of lamina, orbicular or elliptic, 1.5-3 mm in diam., nearly confluent after maturity; paraphyses brown, orbicular, 0.3-0.5 mm in diam., lumina small, central ones thickened, opaque or transparent. Spore surface with large and shallowly reticulate ornamentation. 2n = 50, 51, 75, 76, 100, 101, 102, 103 (diploid, triploid, tetraploid, with irregular meiosis in some triploid plants).

On tree trunks or rocks on forested slopes; near sea level to 2000 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, NE India, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Nepal, Philippines].