The blades are cut into pinnae near the base, which diminish into lobes in the upper part and eventually to teeth on the sides of a long, drawn-out tip.

The dark color of the stipe extends some distance into the rachis (leaf axis), the rest of which is flat and green.

[2] Dark brown spores (none of which are viable) are plentiful in sori covering the backs of the pinnae in fertile fronds.

The fertile fronds are about ten times longer, lanceolate with long-pointed tips, and stand erect.

× trudellii also has a slightly thicker texture, lighter brown spores, and two to three stalked and toothed pinnae at the base.

× kentuckiense has fewer than fifteen pairs of pinnae, which are not sessile, and when dark color is present in the rachis, it covers less than seven-eights of that structure.

[b] As this character can only be examined by microscope, and the ranges of individual guard cell size overlap,[3] some care is required in its use; 30 measurements from a single pinna were used to obtain an average length in previous studies.

[4] The species was first described by Thomas N. McCoy, based on a type specimen collected in 1934 at Keyser Creek, Boyd County, Kentucky.

[5] The earliest collection made of the species was probably that of Franklin Sumner Earle, around 1880, who identified it as A. pinnatifidum.

[4] Smith, Bryant, and Tate obtained live material in 1961, which allowed them to observe that the species is indeed triploid, and that no pairing of homologous chromosomes occurred during meiosis.

[7] In 1974, John Mickel published Asplenosorus kentuckiensis as a new combination for the species to allow the continued recognition of the genus Camptosorus for the walking ferns.

[8] Since then, phylogenetic studies have shown that Camptosorus nests within Asplenium,[9][10] and current treatments do not recognize it as a separate genus.

[14] Herb Wagner suggested searching for it in disturbed areas where soil-growing A. platyneuron and rock-growing A. pinnatifidum might mingle.