Gymnogramma aurita Hooker, Icon. Pl. 10: t. 974. 1854; Aspidium auritum (Hooker) Christ; Dryopteris aurita (Hooker) C. Christensen; Grammitis aurita (Hooker) T. Moore; Leptogramma aurita (Hooker) Beddome; Nephrodium auritum (Hooker) Handel-Mazzetti; Phegopteris aurita (Hooker) J. Smith; Polypodium auritum (Hooker) E. J. Lowe; Thelypteris aurita (Hooker) Ching.

Plants 40-100 cm tall. Rhizome long creeping, with scales at apex; scales brown, narrowly lanceolate, 3-4 mm, ciliate along margins. Fronds remote; stipe red-castaneous or brownish at least toward base, shiny, 20-60 cm; lamina ovate-lanceolate, 20-70 × 15-30 cm, slightly tapering to base, pinnate-pinnatifid, pinnatifid and acuminate at apex; pinnae 10-18 pairs, opposite, spreading, sessile, proximal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae slightly shortened, lanceolate, distal pinnae 7-15 × 2-4 cm, bases hastate, asymmetrical, pinnatifid nearly to costae, apices acuminate, pinnae above middle ± symmetrical at base and adnate to rachis; segments (10-)15-20 pairs, spreading, basiscopic segments of pinnae longer than acroscopic ones, basal pair largest, particularly basiscopic one more oblique, lanceolate, 2.5-4 × 0.7-1 cm, margins pinnately lobed or crenate, apices acuminate, acroscopic ones shorter, parallel to rachis, oblong, 1-2 cm, entire or shallowly undulate, obtuse at apices. Veins visible abaxially, lateral veins forked or simple, 5-7 pairs per segment, basal pair arising from bases of costules. Laminae thickly herbaceous, drying brown-green, with short hairs along both sides of costae or only adaxially, laminae otherwise glabrous, rachises smooth abaxially, with dense short hairs adaxially. Sori oblong or sometimes ovate-orbicular, borne above middle of ultimate veinlets, far from costules, 2-5 pairs per segment. Sporangia each with hairs below annulus. 2n = 62, 124.

A widespread species, Pseudophegopteris aurita varies considerably in frond size, and hence in laminar dissection, over its range. Specimens outside of China tend to be considerably larger.

Forests beside streams on high mountains; 1200-2000 m. Chongqing, C Fujian, C Guizhou, S and W Jiangxi, SE Xizang, W Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, N Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, N Vietnam].