Terrestrial, to 1.5 m tall; rhizome stout, erect to decumbent in age, with thick, shiny, dark-brown scales. Leaves 1-pinnate; petioles slightly prickly to touch near base, often scaly; petiole and rachis dark brown or purplish, shiny; leaflets lanceolate-oblong, gradually long-acuminate, obtuse to acute and often unequal at base, 15-30 cm long, 2-4 cm wide; sterile margins crenulate to serrulate; lateral veins frequently 1-forked above base occasionally in distal half of blades. Sori very numerous along margin, contiguous or nearly so, from near base often to very near apex; indusium thin, hemispherical and glabrous. Croat 8575. Infrequent, usually on stream banks in the forest. Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil; West Indies. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone (both slopes), Panama, and Darien and from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui and Panamd.