Rhizome short, densely clad in pale brown lanceolate-attenuate paleae up to 5 mm. or more long; stipites crowded, paleate at very base. Stipes 3-6 cm. long, slender, glab. or with occ. hairs, very narrowly winged in upper half. Laminae of diverse form, dark to light green, coriac., 5-25 × 2-6 cm., narrow-oblong to narrow-ovate, ± acuminate; deeply pinnatifid to pinnate; pinnules alt. to subopp., decurrent. Pinnules up to 5 cm. × 3-5 mm., obtuse to subacute; veins obscure: (a) all with triangular teeth, 1-2 mm. long, up to 20 pairs, forward-pointing, each us. bearing a sorus; (b) upper as in (a), lower entire or with occ. obscure to distinct teeth, us. barren; (c) all entire or with a few obscure teeth, barren; (d) reduced to teeth, some or all fertile; the lamina then narrow-linear; (e) absent, the lamina then narrow-linear, entire, barren. The (b) form is perhaps the commonest, but a mixture of forms may be found on the same plant. Sori few to cop., oblong, c. 2 mm. long, often obliquely paired, sometimes covering whole tooth.