Plants 60-140 cm tall. Rhizomes long creeping, ca. 5 mm in diam.; scales brown, lanceolate. Fronds widely spaced; stipe straw-colored to reddish purple, 40-85 cm × 2.5-5 mm; lamina abaxially greenish, adaxially brownish green, narrowly ovate or ovate-deltoid, as long as stipe or shorter, 18-26 cm wide, 2-pinnate, herbaceous when dry, abaxially densely papillose, with a short and stiff hair on each papilla, adaxially glabrous or sometimes with a few jointed hairs. Lateral pinnae 3-6 pairs, basal pair of pinnae largest, oblong-lanceolate to broadly ovate, stalked, pinnate; lateral pinnules 1-3 pairs, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 6-15 × 1.5-3.5 cm, base rounded-cuneate or subrounded, margin with short, spreading deltoid teeth, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Medial pinnae as terminal pinnule, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 10-20 × 2-4.5 cm, shortly stalked, base rounded-cuneate, margin sharply serrate, apex long acuminate. Veins free; hydathodes slightly thickened, linear, extending to bases of teeth or slightly into teeth. Sori extending nearly to pinna margin.