Plants 60-120 cm tall. Stipe straw-colored, or with brownish spots, 24-60 cm × 2-3 mm; lamina dull green, ovate-deltoid or ovate-oblong, as long as stipe or shorter, 15-25 cm wide, 2-pinnate, herbaceous to papery when dry, both surfaces glabrous or pilose abaxially. Lateral pinnae 3-9 pairs, basal pair largest, deltoid-oblong, 18-28 × 8-17 cm, stalks 1-2.5 cm, pinnate; lateral pinnules 1-3 pairs, lanceolate, 6-12 × 1.4-2 cm, shortly stalked, base rounded to rounded-cuneate, apex long acuminate or caudate-acuminate; terminal pinnule much larger than lateral pinnules, base very unequal, frequently bifid. Pinnae of second pair trifoliolate or simple (rarely pinnate). Simple pinnae lanceolate, 12-18 × 2-3 cm, shortly stalked to sessile, base rounded-cuneate, somewhat unequal, apex long acuminate or caudate-acuminate; terminal pinna often bifid at base; pinna and pinnule margins serrate. Veins 1- or 2-forked; hydathodes linear, extending into teeth or rarely into tooth margin. Sori extending close to lamina margin.
