Japan Flora: Rhizomes very short, creeping or ascending; fronds deciduous; stipes 40-60 cm. long, green to straw-colored, sparsely scaly at base; scales linear-lanceolate, 6-10 mm. long, entire, short-pilose; blades yellowish to bright green, ovate to elliptic-ovate, 30-80 cm. long, 20-50 cm. wide, 3- or 4-pinnati- parted; pinnae broadly lanceolate, 5-8 cm. wide in the upper ones, about 10 cm. wide in the lowest, acuminate, short-petiolate in the lower; pinnules narrowly to broadly lanceolate, acumi­nate, short-pilose on the costas and costules above, sparingly long-pilose beneath, the rachis more or less narrowly winged except near the base; pinnules obliquely spreading, oblong to lanceolate, obtuse to acuminate, subentire or lobulate to pinnatiparted, sessile, frequently more or less adnate to the axis; vein- lets simple to once forked; sori between the veins and margin; indusia orbicular-reniform, glandular, often pilose.  Thickets in lowlands and hills.

Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shi­koku, Kyushu; common. Korea, Ryukyus, Formosa, China.

var. lasiocarpa (Hayata) H. Ito. Differs from the typical phase in the longer 1- to 5-celled hairs of the indusia, rachis, and costas of blades. Honshu (Hachijo Isi.), Kyushu. Ryukyus and Formosa.

var. subtripinnata (Tagawa) Ohwi. Blades mostly larger, bright green, mem­branous; pinnules spaced, broader, with a distinct, short petiolulc, at least in the lower ones.  Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Kyushu. Korea.