Etymology Aristata means bearded, or with an awn, like the oats.

Description Rhizome: long creeping, 1 cm diam., fronds distant, reddish brown scales.
Frond: evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: .
Stipe: straw-colored, brown below, sometimes more than 50 cm long in fertile fronds, densely scaly at base, vascular bundles: 4 or more in an arc.
Blade: 3-pinnate, actually more divided on the lowest pinna, first pinnule, first segment, and only on mature plants, deltate or pentagonal, glossy, below: hairlike scales.
Pinnae: 5 to 10 pair, lowest ones largest, gradually smaller upwards, then abruptly narrowing ; pinnules basal basiscopic of lowest pinnae far larger than second ones; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae to costules; margins creanate, spiny; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, between midrib and margin, indusium: reniform, central, sporangia: black.

Culture Habitat: fairly dry floor of mountain forests, usually in zones less than 20 km from coast. Distribution: Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India, SE. Asia generally, through Malesia to Polynesia and New Zealand. Hardy to -20°C, USDA Zone 6.

Synonyms
Polypodium aristatum G. Forst.
Rumohra aristata (G. Forst.) Ching