Rhizome semi-erect, short. Fronds crowded, erect or spreading, 20–50 cm tall, relatively harsh, variable in shape and size; sterile and fertile fronds dissimilar; young fronds frequently reddish. Stipe short, pale to brown, scaly near base. Sterile frond lamina tapered towards base, simple, dark green, narrowly oblanceolate to oblong, or irregularly and pinnately divided with fewer than 10 pairs of segments or lobes, each broadest above midway, constricted near rachis. Fertile fronds simple and narrow, 2–4 mm wide, or pinnate with a few long, similarly narrow pinnae. Sori covering underside of fertile pinnae on each side of midrib.
VRiv, GipP, OtP, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, HFE, VAlp. Occurs on heavily shaded banks near streams or gully slopes of cool- and warm-temperate rainforest on and south of the Great Dividing Range, occasionally among boulders and near waterfalls.
