Ctenitis squamigera is a short-lived perennial in the Dryopteridaceae (wood fern) family. It has a rhizome (horizontal stem) 5 to 10 mm (0.2 to 0.4 in) thick, creeping above the ground and densely covered with scales similar to those on the lower part of the leafstalk. The leafstalks are 20 to 60 cm (8 to 24 in) long and densely clothed with tan-colored scales up to 1.8 cm (0.7 in) long and 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. The leafy part of the frond is deltoid to ovate-oblong, dark green, thin, and twice- to thrice-pinnatifid (leaflet divisions). The sori are tan-colored when mature and are in a single row one-third of the distance from the margin to the midrib of the ultimate segments. The indusium (thin membrane covering the sorus) is whitish before wriniding (wrinkling), thin, suborbicular (almost circular) with a narrow sinus (recess or indentation between lobes of a leaf) extending about halfway, glabrous (without hairs) except for a circular margin which is ciliolate (having minute cilia) with simple several-celled glandular and nonglandular hairs arising directly from the margin or from the deltoid base.