Plants stout. Leaf base , including sheath, to 1.2cm diam., often swollen 1--6 times width of common stalk (dried). Common stalk green, trophophore blade medium green to yellow-green, somewhat shiny. Segments wide, ultimate lobes broadly ovate-oblong, 2--3 mm wide, blade tissue leathery-succulent. Pinnae and lobes somewhat blunt. Sporangia 0.9--1.3 mm diam., exposed and not immersed, mostly approximate or slightly separated and covering sporangiophore midrib.

Leaves usually drying up in midsummer together with other associated species. Mainly open fields; 0--3700 m; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Eurasia.