Japan Flora: Rhizomes stout; fronds evergreen; stipes few, 20-60 cm. long; scales linear to subulate, 3-10 mm. long, filiform at the tip, entire, black-brown, dilated, lobed, ciliate, closely ap­pressed to the stipe at base, the basal scales dense, 1-2.5 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide, lustrous, brown to black-brown, scarcely dilated at base; blades broadly ovate to elliptic, 25-50 cm. long, 20-30 cm. wide, abruptly contracted and often subtruncate with a deltoid-lanceolate acuminate tail at the tip, bipinnate; pinnae 6-9 pairs, sometimes more, broadly linear, 10-25 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. wide, gradually acuminate, short-petiolulate; pinnules oblong to linear-oblong, more or less falcate, 1-2.5 (-3.5) cm. long, 5-8 mm. wide, acute to obtuse, usually auricled, subcordate to cuneate at base, few-toothed, some­times lobulate or pinnatiparted, sessile; sori in 2 rows, nearer the margin than the costule; indusia orbicular-reniform, nearly entire, about 1.2 mm. across.  

Honshu (Kanto and Tokaido to Kinki and Chugoku Distr.), Shikoku, Kyushu; rather rare. Ryukyus, Formosa, China to Indochina, and Philip­ines; very variable.

var. setosa (Thunb.) Ohwi Blades gradually narrowed from below the middle to the tip. Woods in hills and low mountains; Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu; very common. Korea and China.

var. subtripartita (Fr. & Sav.) H. Ito. Blades often larger, often tripinnately parted to tripinnate, the pinnules often broadly lanceo- late, acute, toothed; sori median or somewhat closer to the costules than to the margin, Honshu (Kanto Distr. And westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu.

var. sacrosancta (Koidz.) Ohwi. the blades thinner, firmly herbaceous to subcoriaceous, dull; pinnules more deeply and finely parted. Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu. Korea and Manchuria.