Description Rhizome: erect, branching, scaly.
Frond: 60 cm high by 25 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 3:2.
Stipe: grooved, straw-colored, dark brown at base, scales narrow-triangular, to 1 cm, shiny black, scales higher up with a lighter, narrow band at the margins, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 3-pinnate near the rachis, deltate-ovate to lanceolate, papery, pale to yellowish green, not shining, brown to black linear scales with a pale base appressed on lower side of rachis and costa; lamina glabrous on both surfaces.
Pinnae: 15 to 17 pair, usually curving towards the apex, overlapping (in the herbarium?); pinnules stalked; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; segments weakly serrate; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, small, submarginal, indusium: reniform, pale geen, becoming brown, attached at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.

Culture Habitat: dry forests. Distribution: Japan, China, Korea. Hardy to -15°C, USDA Zone 7.

Synonyms
Dryopteris varia (L.) Kuntze var. sacrosancta (Koidz.) Ohwi