Dryopteris cochleata

Terrestrial herb with creeping rhizome, 12-15 x 3-4 cm. Scales 1-1.5 x 0.3 cm, lanceolate-acuminate, entire, pale brown. Fronds 90-100 x 30-40 cm, bipinnate; stipe 40-50 cm, long, scaly towards base, glabrous, polished above, yellowish or pale brown, dimorphic; lamina rhomboid or ovate in outline; primary pinnae 16-18 x 4-5 cm, lanceolate-acuminate in outline, progressively reduced towards apex, costa grooved and winged above, raised below; secondary pinnae 0.5- 3 x 0.4-1.5 cm, lanceolate-acuminate, sessile, cuneate at base, lobed to serrate along margins, progressively reduced, ending in a linear, lobed terminal segment; veins indistinct above, distinct below, forked; fertile fronds dissimilar; pinnae and pinnules smaller and lobed; primary fertile pinnae 40-10 x 1-2.5 cm; pinnules 0.5-1.5 x 0.5 cm, oblong, rounded, shallowly lobed or serrate. Sori 2 mm in diameter, circular, yellowish-brown in two rows, completely covering the entire lower side; indusia brown, reniform, peltate. Sporangial capsule 312.5 x 250 µm subglobose, stalk 375 µm long. Spores 60 x 40 mm, planoconvex, dark brown with thick anastomosing perispore.