Rhizome short and slender, densely covered with dark brown scales. Fronds tufted, erect, 5–45 cm long. Stipe usually more than half the frond length (shorter on sterile fronds), slender, brown or straw-coloured, deeply grooved, mostly glabrous. Lamina irregularly 2-pinnate, lowermost pairs pedately divided (sterile fronds 1-pinnate), dark to light green, almost glabrous; rachis straw coloured, winged for most of length, glabrous or with scattered brown scales. Pinnae in 2–4 overlapping pairs, 40–140(–190) mm long, 3–6 mm wide, linear or lanceolate, apex tapering, base long decurrent, margins serrate or serrulate, becoming entire when fertile; veins widely spaced at maturity, almost parallel, simple or forked. Sori continuous along margins extending down decurrent base.
GipP. Naturalised in Victoria, only known from one location south-east of Melbourne, where it occurs in rock overhangs and crevices.
Fronds are distinctly dimorphic, with sterile fronds 1-pinnate. Only fertile material with 2-pinnately divided fronds recorded in Victoria.
