Huperzia stemmermanniae is an epiphytic (growing on another plant) hanging fir-moss (lycophyte) in the club moss family (Lycopodiaceae). The sterile stem bases are usually unforked or 1-forked, short and usually smaller than 15 cm (6 in) long and are pale yellow with fertile terminal strobili (cone like structures of small leaves). The sterile leaves are elliptic, 5 to 12 X 2 to 4 mm (0.2 to 0.5 X 0.08 to 0.16 in) long and separated. The transition to fertile leaves is somewhat gradual. The fertile leaves are ovate (egg shaped) to lanceolate (oval tapering to a point), and as long as or longer than the sporangia (enclosure in which spores are formed), which is about 1.5 to 5 mm (0.06 to 0.2 in) long. Strobili are much larger and longer than the sterile basal stem and are up to 30 cm (12 in) long and 1.5 to 2.2 mm (0.06 to 0.09 in ) in diameter and are unforked or forking (up to six times) at acute angles of 10 to 50 degrees. The branches of the strobili are usually straight.