Japan Flora: Rhi­zomes densely clothed with basal stubs of old stipes; stipes 22- 25 cm. long, straw-colored, densely scaly, the larger scales ovate-oblong, lustrous, dark chestnut-brown, ovate-oblong, 8- 10 mm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, acuminate, irregularly ciliate- fimbriate on a brown scarious margin, the smaller ones linear- subulate or filiform, ferrugineous, ciliate; blades dimorphic, lanceolate, acuminate, bipinnate in the lower portion, slightly narrowed at base, the sterile ones longer and wider, often 40 cm. long or more, about 25 cm. wide, the fertile about 15 cm. wide, gemmate in upper axils, the scales on rachis ferrugine- ous, filiform, ciliate, contorted; pinnae subsessile, the sterile ones broadly lanceolate, to 13 cm. long, 3-3.5 cm. wide, acumi­nate, the fertile narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-1.8 cm. wide, acute; sterile pinnules herbaceous-coriaceous, ovate-oblong, to 2 cm. long, 8 mm. wide, obtuse, oblique, glabrous on upper side, with scattered filiform ciliate scales on lower side, depressed­toothed; fertile pinnules smaller, entire to crenate; sori in 2 series on the pinnules; indusia entire, about 1 mm. across.

Kyushu (Yakushima); rare.