Plants up to 50 cm tall. Rhizome and stipe base erect, short, stout, densely clothed with linear-lanceolate, sparsely ciliate, brownish black scales. Fronds caespitose; stipe dark purplish brown, ca. 15 cm, sparsely clothed upward with scales similar to those on rhizome and stipe base; lamina lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 30-35 cm, up to ca. 10 cm wide at middle, once pinnate, base slightly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 20 pairs, alternate, slightly oblique, falcate-lanceolate, middle pinnae longer than others, ca. 6 × 1.2 cm, base truncate, very shortly stalked, margin pinnatifid to parted, apex acuminate, lowest several pinnae slightly shortened, slightly reflexed, basal pinna ca. 3.5 cm; segments suboblong, serrulate, rounded at apex. Lamina thinly papery, both surfaces subglabrous; rachis densely clothed with linear, brownish black, ciliate scales, pinna rachis sometimes sparsely scaly abaxially; veins pinnate, simple. Sori on middle of veinlets, scattered on each side of costa; indusia orbicular-reniform, entire.
