Terrestrial, to 90 cm tall; rhizome stout, creeping. Juvenile leaves often nearly entire; adult leaves simple, with a large apical lobe and 2 or 3 pairs of smaller lateral lobes; petioles to 40 cm long with lanceolate-linear scales nearly 1 cm long, most dense near base; blades ovate in outline, long-acuminate at apex, cordate at base, to 50 cm long and 35 cm wide, glabrous above, the veins on underside bearing sparse scales similar to those on petiole and appressed trichomes, the smaller veins reticulate; lobes +/- oblong-elliptic, long-acuminate, 4.5-8 cm wide, the terminal lobe about twice as wide as lateral lobes (to 15 cm wide). Sori round, small, scattered +/- all over lower surface. Croat 6488. Occasional, on stream banks in the forest. Guatemala to Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, and Darien and from tropical wet forest in Chiriqui and Panama. See Fig. 37.