Petioles 10–30 cm long.
Blade segments deeply divided, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 10–60 × 5–25 cm; rachis and costae with sparse pale brown scales, glands absent.
Pinnae with a distinct stalk, narrowly triangular; acroscopic lobe scarcely enlarged.
Sori round, borne on veins near the margins of the pinnules.
Indusia absent or minute; pinnule teeth cupping the sorus on 1 side.
Wet montane meadows, rocky hillsides, talus slopes. 1000– 3000 m. BR, BW, Casc, ECas, Owy. CA, ID, NV, WA; north to British Columbia, disjunct populations in Yukon, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Greenland. Native.
as described under Athyrium alpestre
Varieties ca. 3 (1 in the flora): North America, Europe, Asia.