Rhizome creeping above ground 5-10mm in diameter. Stipe up to 50cm long, light brown, grooved above. Fronds erect to arching, thick and leathery, up to 1.3m long x 43cm wide, 3- or 4- pinnatifid, pinnules upper surface glabrous, undersurface with a few scales along the veins, Sori round, up to 2mm in diameter, usually one per pinnule lobe; indusium circular, shed at maturity, (indusium is an epidermal outgrowth which covers the sori when young).

Fern is popular with florists as fronds are long lasting in water. Commercially cultivated for export to Europe.