Etymology Named for Mr. Tagawa, the Japanese botanist.

Description Rhizome: erect, short, thick, scaly.
Frond: 90 cm high by 20 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1 to 3:1.
Stipe: straw-colored to dark brown at base, grooved, scales at stipe base ovate-lanceolate, pale brown or red-brown, darker at the center, lustrous early, irregularly toothed, vascular bundles: 4 or more, in an arc.
Blade: 2-pinnate, lanceolate, soft-textured, pale green on upper surface, scales on rachis and pinna rachis linear-lanceolate to linear, pale brown or tinted red, with many irregular projections at margin, hairlike scales sc.
Pinnae: 18 to 25 pair, linear, the lowest pair bending towards the base and above the plane; pinnules obtuse to acute at apex, eared outwards, sometimes prominently, the first upper pinnule slightly larger to twice the size of the others; margins spiny; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, near the margin, scattered, sparse, indusium: peltate, small, dark center, central, sporangia: black.
Dimensionality: lowest pair of pinnae bending down, forward.

Culture Habitat: mountain slopes and on floor of forests. Distribution: Japan. Hardy to -30°C, USDA Zone 4.

Distinctive Characteristics in the drawing taken from the defining reference (reproduced in Hoshizaki and Moran), some of the upper pinnules closest to the rachis are themselves pinnate, highly distinctive, and not repeated in the photos above

Synonyms
Polystichum pseudo-makinoi Tagawa
Polystichum pseudo-makinoi Tagawa var. ambiguum Tagawa