Rhizome short-creeping. Stipe dark brown to black, not tufted or rarely tufted. Fronds lacking reduced basal pinnae, pinnae sub-entire or crenate, usually with several pairs of anastomosing veins, lower surface between veins often pustular when dry, spherical glands sometimes present on the lower surfaces of pinnae or on sporangia. Sori exindusiate. Spores bilateral plano-convex to concavo-convex, perineous. Sori either super-ficial, circular or elongated, occur at the end of veins and secondary veins. Spores monolete and ellipsoidal or rarely trilete and somewhat spheroidal, surface often reticulate or with short, low ridges or prominently winged, the borders sometimes ciliate or shortly cristate to echinate. Chromosome number : x = 36 ( Smith 1990). Rhizome short, creeping. Sterile stipe 20-30 cm long. Fronds dimorphous, minutely hairy. Sterile lamina 30-40 cm long. Pinnae 12 pairs, basal pinnae narrowed at base, more on basiscopic than acroscopic side, base truncate, auricled on acroscopic side, apex abruptly short-acuminate, edges obliquely lobed to a depth of 1-2 mm or sometimes more deeply lobed. Veins 8 pairs, 2-4 pairs anastomosing. Lower surface of rachis covered with thick curved hairs, more than 0.5 mm long, upper surface covered throughout more or less closely with finely appressed hairs. Stipe fertile, frond about 50 cm long, pinnae widely spaced than sterile one, edges shallowly crenate. Sori medial, lower ones at least somewhat elongated along veins, sporangia with glands, spores with wing, ornamentation. Rhizome short, creeping, 7-10 mm in diameter, bearing hooked hairs. Stipe about 50 cm or more long, dark at the base with hooked hairs and dark brown scales, sometimes not found on younger plants. Fronds simple-pinnate. Lamina commonly 30-50 cm long, firm, dull reddish after drying. Pinnae 4-7 pairs, lowest one opposite, sometimes a bud present on the highest pinnae of old fronds, basal pinnae with stalked apex, caudate acuminate, crenate. Veins 10-12 pairs, not prominent on either side. Sori near costule, somewhat elongated. Rhizome slender, long-creeping, bearing stipes at interval of 1-2 cm. Stipes slender, covered with short hairs throughout, those of fertile fronds commonly more than twice as long as those of sterile fronds on the same plant, stipes of sterile fronds 7-20 cm long. Lamina trifoliate. The lateral leaflets opposite, attached at 1-2 cm below the terminal leaflet; sterile terminal leaflet 10-15 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, lanceolate, the base rounded, often somewhat unequal, apex acuminate, the edges entire or irregularly sinuate, the midrib and the upper surface shortly hairy. The midrib and veins beneath bearing numerous shortly spreading, pale, hooked hairs, the lamina between the veins dull, verrucose and glabrous. Veins 10-12 pairs, spreading from the costules at the very obtuse angle, usually almost straight, nearly always meeting in opposite pairs, the excurrent veinlet free or united to the next pair of veins above; lateral sterile leaflets similar, but shorter (5-10 × 1.5-3 cm), unequally rounded at the base, and shortly stalked, fertile fronds with narrower leaflets (apical leaflet 1-2.5 cm wide) the veins almost at right angles to the costules. Sori extending all along each vein so that sporangia are distributed in a cresent shaped row along each pair of connivent veins, without indusia.