Plants 10-15 cm tall. Rhizome slender and creeping, wirelike, 1-1.5 mm in diam., densely scaly, older parts naked; scales dark brown, basifixed with a tuft of hairs at point of attachment, lanceolate, 2-2.5 × 0.4-0.8 mm; lumina at base large and transparent, slightly isodiametric, upward abruptly narrowed, rectangular, cell wall thickened, base subrounded, margin denticulate, apex acuminate or extended into long awn. Fronds (0.3-)2-4 cm apart; stipe straw-colored or brownish to dark brown, 2-8 cm, 0.5-0.8 mm in diam., smooth and glabrous; lamina linear-lanceolate, (4-)8-25 × 0.3-1.5 cm, widest 1/3-1/2 way from base, stiffly papery to subleathery, abaxially glabrous or with scattered scales, base cuneate, decurrent, margin slightly revolute, apex shortly acuminate or obtuse; costa raised on both sides, veinlets obscure. Sori along distal 1/3-1/2 of lamina, midway between costa and margins or nearer costa, orbicular; paraphyses dark brown, stellate or suborbicular, less than 0.3 mm in diam., lumina irregular, transparent or opaque.

The very thin rhizomes of this and the next species, Lepisorus pseudoussuriensis, are more like those seen in Lemmaphyllum and quite different from other species in Lepisorus.

In rock crevices in forests or shaded slopes; 700-1700 m. Anhui, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia].