Stems short-creeping, thick, to 10 mm diam. Leaves monomorphic, evergreen, 60--150 cm. Petiole to 75 cm × 3--12 mm, glaucous when living. Blade 2--3-pinnate, to ca. 85 cm. Pinnae to 35 × 10(--17) cm; pinnules sessile to adnate, oblique, 2--8 × 0.8--2.5 cm, incised almost to costule into oblique segments 2--4 mm wide, segments entire to dentate or pinnatifid; veins forked or simple. Indument abaxially of septate hairs 1--2 mm on costae and costules; rachis, costae, and blade tissue with capitate glands 0.05 mm. Sori round, indusia small, less than 0.3 mm diam., glabrous or glandular; sporangia with minute capitate glands near annulus. 2 n = 124.

Terrestrial in damp woods and along stream banks; 0--100 m; introduced; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., S.C., Tex.; s Mexico; West Indies in the Antilles; Central America; South America to n Argentina; native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa.

The name Dryopteris setigera (Blume) Kuntze has been misapplied to plants in the flora.