Gymnogramma aurita Hooker var. levingei C. B. Clarke, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Bot. 1: 568. 1880 ["levingii"]; Dryopteris levingei (C. B. Clarke) C. Christensen; D. purdomii C. Christensen; G. levingei (C. B. Clarke) Baker; Lastrea levingei (C. B. Clarke) Copeland; Leptogramma aurita (Hooker) Beddome var. levingei (C. B. Clarke) Beddome; Phegopteris levingei (C. B. Clarke) Tagawa; Thelypteris levingei (C. B. Clarke) Ching.

Plants 60-80 cm tall. Rhizome long creeping, with reddish brown, broadly lanceolate scales and whitish acicular hairs. Fronds remote; stipe stramineous, 15-30 cm, with sparse similar scales on proximal parts and denser whitish acicular hairs and few irregularly forked stellate hairs; lamina pinnate-pinnatisect, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 35-60 × 5-15 cm, slightly tapering at base, acuminate and pinnatifid at apex; pinnae to ca. 20 pairs, opposite, sessile, pinnae above middle approximate, proximal 2 or 3 pairs remote from each other, gradually shortened downward, basal pair of pinnae smallest, 2-5 cm, others 3-8(-11) × 1.5-2.5 cm, lanceolate, bases truncate, ± symmetrical, pinnatisect nearly to costae, apices acuminate; segments 8-15 pairs per pinna, opposite, obliquely spreading, approximate, oblong, 1-1.3 × 0.3-0.5 cm, slightly broader at base, connected to each other by a narrow wing, entire, crenate, or occasionally lobed along margins of larger segments, obtuse at apices. Veins visible on both sides, lateral veins simple or forked, 5-7 per segment, basal pair arising from above bases of main veins. Laminae herbaceous, drying dark green, abaxial surfaces with dense whitish acicular hairs and a few stellate short hairs along costae and veins, also ± hairy between veins, adaxial surfaces with sparse acicular hairs, hairs denser along rachises. Sori suborbicular or oblong, 3-5(-7) pairs per segment, borne at or above middle of ultimate veins and closer to margin. Sporangia each with 1-3 hairs ca. 0.2 mm below annulus. 2n = 124.

Pseudophegopteris levingei is similar to P. bukoensis (Tagawa) Holttum, but the latter is larger in outline, with laminae 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, pinnae and pinnules oblong, pinnules incised to 2/3 of distance to costules, and costae with more stellate hairs abaxially.

Reviewer Ralf Knapp provided the record for Taiwan. Information about this taxon and a taxon previously cited for Taiwan, Pseudophegopteris aurita, will be included in Knapp’s Supplement to the Ferns and Fern Allies of Taiwan, to be published in 2013.

Forests beside streams, thickets; 1300-3100 m. SE Gansu, SC Shaanxi, C Sichuan, Taiwan, E and S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Pakistan].