Smithii has a very beautiful habit with its broad, soft fronds; and the stripes have dark scales and a yellow midrib. Rather than uncurling in the manner of most tree ferns, in which the main frond stalk unrolls almost to its full length before the "frondlets" (pinnae) unroll; the fronds tend to expand all at once up the length of the frond. The fronds often leave a skirt around the slender, fibrous trunk after they have died, which allows other ferns and epiphytes to grow on the lower parts of the trunk.