Japan Flora: Rhizomes ascending to erect, densely clothed with basal stubs of old stipes; fronds tufted; stipes 20-30 cm. long, stout, straw- colored, densely scaly, the scales membranous, brown, con- colorous, lustrous, dentate-ciliate, the largest narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 10-25 mm. long, gradually acuminate, spreading to deflexed, the basal ones broader, rather abruptly contracted at the tip, the smallest ones linear-lanceolate, 7-15 mm. long, ciliate in lower half, gradually attenuate forming a contorted filiform tip; blades narrowly oblong-ovate, 30-80 cm. long, 15-25 cm. wide, short-acuminate, slighdy narrowed at base, deep green and slightly lustrous on upper side, the scales on rachis dense, deflexed, narrowly lanceolate to broadly linear, filiform at the tip; pinnae 15-25 mm. wide; pinnules firmly herbaceous, oblique, oblong-ovate, 8-15 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, obtuse to acute, spine-tipped, appressed spine­toothed, glabrate on upper side, with fibrouslike scales be­neath; sori median between the costule and the margin. Woods.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. s. Korea.

var. fibrillosopaleaceum (Kodama) Tagawa. Larger scales on stipes linear-lanceolate, entire to sparsely spinulose-ciliolate, gradually narrowed at tip, usually contorted, the scales on rachis linear to filiform. Honshu, Shikoku.

Japan Flora: Rhizomes rather stout, short, covered with the basal stubs of old stipes; fronds tufted; stipes pale green to straw-colored, brownish at base, rather sparsely scaly in upper part, densely so at base; scales on stipes and rachis black-brown, linear to nearly filiform, 3-5 mm. long, the basal scales oblong- lanceolate, 1-1.2 cm. long, abruptly contracted at the tip, acuminate; blades broadly lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 25-40 cm. long, 10-20 cm. wide, acuminate, the rachis prominently sedy; pinnules oblique, ovate to oblong-ovate, 7-15 mm. long, 3-7 mm. wide, acute and spine-tipped, sessile, gray-green and glabrous above, with scattered hairlike sedes beneath, spine­toothed; sori in 2 series on the pinnules, inserted in a shallow pit; indusia deciduous, flat, about 1 mm. across.                     

Honshu (Kanto Dktr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu. Korea, China, and Formosa.