Gleichenia chinensis Rosenstock, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 13: 120. 1913; Dicranopteris chinensis (Rosenstock) Tagawa; Hicriopteris chinensis (Rosenstock) Ching.

Plants ca. 3 m tall. Rhizomes long creeping, ca. 5 mm in diam., densely covered with brown scales. Fronds 2-pinnate; stipe dark brown, 5-6 mm wide, with dense rufous scales, glabrescent, pinna rachises stramineous, 2-4 mm wide; pinnae 2-pinnatifid, oblong, 80-120 × 20-30 cm; pinnules many, alternate, deeply pectinately pinnatifid, lanceolate, 12-18 × 2.5-3 cm, base sessile, apex acuminate; lobes alternate, 40-60 pairs, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 10-15 × 2.5-3.5 mm, apex obtuse or sometimes emarginate; lamina papery, costae, costules, and veins with dense brown stellate hairs abaxially; costae plane adaxially; veins prominent on both surfaces. Sori with 3 or 4 sporangia.

Two collections (Qinghai-Tibet Exped. 73-805), which have pinna costae with sparse brown scales, were provisionally labeled as "Diplopterygium tsayuensis Ching & S. K. Wu." Here they are regarded as an ecotype of D. chinense.

Dense forests, near forests or valleys; 100-2800 m. Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang (Zayü), Yunnan, Zhejiang [N Vietnam].