Microlepia ampla Ching; M. chishuiensis P. S. Wang; M. hainanensis Ching; M. parastrigosa Ching; M. pseudostrigosa Makino var. tripinnata Tardieu & C. Christensen; M. taiwaniana Tagawa.

Plants terrestrial. Rhizome creeping, ca. 4 mm in diam., with dense red-brown bristles. Fronds remote; stipe brown-straw-colored, ca. 40 cm, ca. 3 mm in diam., with spreading, gray, long, acicular hairs, abscising to leave scabrous marks; rachis and rachillae with spreading brown bristles; lamina brown-green when dried, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate at base, 2-pinnate at middle, narrowly ovate in outline, 40-60 × 15-30 cm, thickly papery, glabrous adaxially, costa and veinlets abaxially with brown long bristles, apex long acuminate; pinnae upswept, with stalk ca. 10 mm, lanceolate in outline, 10-20 × 2-5 cm, basal pair longest, base symmetrical, rounded-cuneate, apex acuminate; pinnules ca. 9 pairs, oblong, ca. 2.5 × 1.2 cm, with thick teeth, base asymmetrical, basiscopically cuneate, acroscopically erect-truncate and parallel to pinna rachis, slightly auriculate, margin pinnatisect nearly to costule, apex obtuse; ultimate lobules 3 or 4 pairs, oblong, apex rounded, with few teeth; pinnae progressively shorter toward apex, merging to form long acuminate terminal segment. Veins obvious on both surfaces, 2 or 3 pairs in ultimate lobules, upswept, simple. Sori orbicular, small, at base of notch on lobules; indusium brown, hemitelioid, hairy.

Fraser-Jenkins (Taxon. Revis. Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes, 85. 2008) included Microlepia taiwaniana as a synonym of the C Indian species M. hallbergii (d’Almeida) C. Christensen, the inclusion of which would extend the distribution significantly westward.

Microlepia subpinnata Hayata (Icon. Pl. Formosan. 4: 209. 1914), described from Taiwan, was treated as a synonym of M. hainanensis in FRPS (2: 224. 1959).

Near streams in forests; below 100-1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [N Vietnam].