Rhizome long creeping, 3-4 mm in diam., densely scaly; scales pale brown, lanceolate with ovate peltate base, 4-5 mm, margin toothed, apex acuminate. Fronds remote. Stipe straw-colored, 5-10 cm, densely scaly at base, glabrescent upward. Lamina pinnatifid or pinnatisect, oblong-lanceolate in outline, 10-20 × 5-7 cm, herbaceous or subleathery, glabrous, apex shortly caudate. Segments 12-15 pairs, oblique, lanceolate, 3-4 × 0.5-0.8 cm, decurrent to adjacent lobes by very narrowly winged rachis, margin toothed, apex obtuse or acute. Veinlets hardly visible. Sori medial or slightly closer to costa.

Available evidence demonstrates that Polypodium vulgare does not occur in Japan or North America.

Epilithic; ca. 1900 m. Xinjiang [Russia; Europe].