Japan Flora: Rhizomes short; stipes tufted, slender, lustrous, 10-30 cm. long, chestnut­brown, sparsely scaly toward base, nearly naked in upper part; scales linear-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, brown, often with few dark striations, spreading, 2-3 mm. long, the basal ones chartaceous, 6-10 mm. long; blades narrowly ovate, 15-30 cm. long, 8-15 cm. wide, acuminate to caudate with an obtuse to acute tip, bipinnate; pinnae 5-8 pairs, petiolulate, oblong- ovate, rarely linear-oblong, 2-4 cm. long, often caudate at the tip, the lowest pinnae ovate-deltoid, to 5 cm. wide, oblique; pinnules chartaceous, narrowly oblong to deltoid-lanceolate, 1-2 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, rounded to obtuse, cuneate at base, acute- to mucronate-toothed, often lobulate or parted, the lowest pinnule of the basal pinnae largest, usually deltoid-ovate, about 5 cm. long, 2 cm. wide; sori median in 2 series on the ultimate pinnules; indusia subreniform, entire, strongly in­curved on margin, 2- or 3-lobed at maturity, about 1 mm. across.  

Honshu (Hachijo), Kyushu (Osumi Prov. incl. Yakushima). Ryukyus and Formosa.