Japan Flora: Rhizomes stout; stipes stout, 30-50 cm. long, glabrate except at base, straw-colored to pale brown, the basal scales membranous, linear to linear-lanceolate, 2-3 cm. long, acuminate, entire; blades broadly ovate-lanceolate, 30-100 cm. long, 20-50 cm. wide, obtuse to acuminate, bipinnaticleft to parted, with large densely scaly gemmae in axils of upper pinnae, the rachis sparsely clothed while very young with small deciduous scales; pinnae equilateral, alternate, thinly coriaceous, ovate- lanceolate or deltoid-lanceolate, 20-30 cm. long, 5-9 cm. wide, caudate-acuminate, abruptly cuneate at base, subsessile, with or without an auricle on posterior side; pinnules obliquely spreading, ovate-deltoid to deltoid-lanceolate, 1.5-3 (-5) cm. long, 6-10 mm. wide, acute or sometimes acuminate, minutely spine-toothed; sori along the costules of the pinnules, oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 2-3 mm. long.
Honshu (Izu Prov.), Kyushu (Higo Prov.). Formosa, Philippines, China, se. Asia, to the Himalayas.