This native perennial fern has deciduous leaves about 2–3½' long in loose tufts. The petioles are mostly light green or straw-colored, becoming more dark toward the base; they have chaffy scales that are light to dark brown. These scales are less than 1 cm. (1/3") in length for var. angustum, while for var. asplenioides they are greater than 1 cm. (1/3") in length. The hairless green blades are 1-3 times longer than their petioles and lanceolate-ovate in shape; they are widest below the middle and up to 10" across. Each leaf blade is bipinnate with 8 or more pairs of linear-lanceolate leaflets (not necessarily opposite from each other); the larger leaflets have 16 or more pairs of subleaflets. The subleaflets are oblong-lanceolate, pinnatifid (shallowly cleft), and sessile or short-stalked; their margins are slightly serrated and revolute (rolled downward). The veins of the subleaflets are pinnate.