Rhizome erect or shortly creeping, base of stipe with dense felt of chestnut brown hairs at least 1 cm long. Fronds tufted, 0.6–2.5 m tall, simply pinnate or lowest pinnae with a few free pinnules; stipe up to 85 cm long, covered with short ± adpressed pale and dark hairs; lamina ± ovate-triangular, up to 80 cm long and wide; rachis with sparse to dense pale or brown hairs; pinnae in ± 10 pairs (1–4 in young plants), alternate or opposite, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, the upper about 10 cm long, 2 cm wide, ± sessile, the basal ones about 43 cm long, 15 cm wide, stalked, variously pinnatifid, acuminate at apex, the two apical pairs and terminal part of frond joined at their bases, somewhat bristly pilose-pubescent on venation which is pale and strongly raised beneath; stalks up to 1 cm long; pinnae with 20–30 pairs of lobes, those of upper pinnae rounded, 0.3–1.5 cm long, 0.7–1.2 cm wide, those of basal parts of lower pinnae much more elongate, triangular-lanceolate, up to 9 cm long, 1.8 cm wide, narrowly joined at base, narrowly acuminate at apex, slightly crenulate; lowest lobe sometimes elliptic and free; upper parts of lower pinnae with lobing similar to that of upper pinnae. Sori U-shaped in sinuses of small lobes, ± 5 mm long and often additional reniform ones above on one or both margins above sinus; false indusium very evident in young state; in large lobes with or without a sorus at the base of the sinus there can be up to 14 sori on each margin at crenulations; paraphyses short and numerous. Fig. 5.