Etymology Niponicum is the Latinized word for Nippon or Japan.

Description Rhizome: long-creeping, about 3 mm diam., also listed as short-creeping, scaly.
Frond: 70 cm high by 25 cm wide, deciduous, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 1:1 or a little more.
Stipe: straw-colored, or sometimes red-purple, scales lanceolate, 4--6 mm long, 1 mm broad, membranous, entire at margin, pale brown, falling early, vascular bundles: 2, peanut-shaped, at stipe base, uniting to a u- or v--shape above.
Blade: 2-pinnate pinnatifid, abruptly narrowed toward terminal pinna-like apex, lanceolate, the uppermost pinnae sessile, sharply reduced, herbaceous, soft, scales on rachis lanceolate, sparse.
Pinnae: 10 to 20 pair, opposite to alternate, anadromous at base of blade, becoming isodromous above, long-stalked, lanceolate, long-tapering; pinnules lanceolate, obtuse to pointed at apex, 1--3 cm long, 3--15 mm broad, longest below the middle of the pinna; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae to costules; margins serrate to deeply pinnatifid; veins free, not reaching the margin, not easy to see without a lens.
Sori: varying in shape, in a basic herringbone pattern, merging at maturity, medial, between midrib and margin, indusium: shape as for sori, whitish, shriveling, attached along the vein, sporangia: dark brown, maturity: summer.
Dimensionality: lowest pinnae bending forward, above the plane of the blade.

Culture Habitat: lowlands, shade. Distribution: China, Japan, Korea, Manchuria. Hardy to -35°C, USDA Zone 3.

Distinctive Characteristics Most plants in commerce are the selection 'Pictum', not really a selection, but a whole range of variations on silver and maroon shadings to the costae and lamina.

Synonyms
Asplenium niponicum Mett.
Asplenium uropteron Miq.
Athyrium uropteron (Miq.) C. Chr.
Athyrium goeringianum (Kunze) Moore