Sphaeropteris brunoniana (Hook.) R.M.Tryon

Trunk erect, up to 10-20 m tall, up to 20 cm in diam. Stipe and rachis yellowish to purplish, smooth, or finely warty at base; scales pale brown or brown, thin, with setiferous edges; lamina 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, 2-3 × to 1.6 m; pinnae 20-30 pairs, ascending, lanceolate; largest pinnae up to 90 × 25 cm; pinnules narrowly lanceolate, 9-14 × 2-3 cm, slightly narrowed at base, apex caudate, pinnatifid to pinnatisect; pinnule segments 16-25 pairs, falcate, 10-16 × 3-5 mm, wider at base, entire or minutely crenate, rarely with small segments; veins 2-or 3-forked; abaxial side of pinnules glabrous, adaxial side glabrous or with sparse hairs; lamina glaucous abaxially; adaxial side of pinna rachis with pale antrorse hairs, a few pale hairs and scales along costules abaxially. Sori close to midveins of fertile pinnule segments, often throughout lower lamina; paraphyses pale to brown, filamentous, longer than sporangia or equal in length; indusia absent.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in evergreen forests between 500-1,200 m in southern China. In Yunnan.