Plants very large, terrestrial. Caudices erect, very large, with thin, light brown scales. Fronds clustered radially at apex, up to 7 m long. Stipes with large swellings (pulvini) at bases, each flanked by 2 large, fleshy stipules, lower stipes with fibrils and scales, stipe cross sections revealing a solitary central vascular bundle surrounded by 60 or more small vascular bundles arranged in 4 or more concentric circles with 12-28 or more vascular units in each. Blades 2-pinnate. Sori submarginal, 1-2 mm long, composed of a double row of 7-12 sporangia fused laterally into synangia.

A genus of more than 100 poorly defined species ranging from India to Sri Lanka, Mada-gascar, Indochina, China, and the western Pacific Ocean, spreading north to Japan and east to Tahiti, and naturalized in Jamaica. Although other Angiopteris species are grown in Hawai 'i, only one species (A. evecta) has escaped from cultivation.