Etymology Purpurella is a form of the word which means purple.

Description Rhizome: short-creeping.
Frond: 75 cm high by 35 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 3:2.
Stipe: grooved, purplish, scales narrow triangular, brown and black or all greenish to 7.5 mm, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate, triangular, young fronds bronze, mature ones pale green, stiff-herbaceous, rachis and costa reddish purple.
Pinnae: 12 to 14 pair, 6 pinnate pinnae, well-spaced, then pinnatifid to the apex; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins margins entire, crenate, or serrate, spinulose or not; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, submarginal, indusium: reniform, whitish-tan and faintly pink at the center, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.

Culture Habitat: on rather wet forest floor in mountainous areas. Distribution: Japan, Korea, China. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.

Distinctive Characteristics bronze coloration on young fronds

Synonyms
Dryopteris erythrosora (D. C. Eaton) Kuntze var. purpurascens H. Itô
Dryopteris indusiata (Makino) Makino et Yamam. ex Yamam. var. purpurascens (H. Itô) Sa. Kurata