Plant with short rhizome that produces tufts of firm, triangular, shiny, dark green evergreen fronds, 10 to 40 cm long that are once to three times pinnate and have long, glossy, purplish-black stalks.

Rock crevices and walls.

Spores ripe June to October.

Perennial - evergreen.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 61 of the 617 tetrads.