The light changes of forest succession play important roles in the presence or absence of plant species in communities. To reveal the effects of light on photosynthetic physiology of Dicranopteris dichotoma at different stages of secondary succession in subtropical forests, light response process and chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetic parameters of D. dichotoma growing in three different communities (scrub, Pinus massoniana forest, and evergreen broadleaf forest) were investigated in this experiment. The results showed that the net photosynthetic rate (P_n) was the highest in the P. massoniana forest with a light intensity of about 400 μmol m^-2 s^-1 and a small daily variation, followed by the evergreen broadleaf forest with a light intensity of about 50 μmol m^-2 s^-1, and the lowest in the scrub with a fluctuation of about 400-1800 μmol m^-2 s^-1. The lowest P_n in the scrub was because high light disrupted donor and acceptor sides of photosystem II (PSII) of D. dichotoma, and resulted in photoinhibition of D. dichotoma, which were proved by significantly increased relative variable fluorescence (V_j) at point J, normalized relative variable fluorescence (W_k) at point K, and significantly decreased PSII performance index (PI_ABS), and unchanged heat dissipation parameter (φ_Do). No significant differences in chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics between the D. dichotoma growing in evergreen broad-leaved forest and P. massoniana forest indicated that its PSII was not damaged, and the decrease of the maximum net photosynthetic rate (P_max) was caused by the low light. At the same time, the reduced dark respiration rate (R_d), light compensation point (LCP), and light saturation point (LSP) showed that D. dichotoma photosynthetic system could adapt to the low light in the evergreen broad-leaved forest. This study showed that D. dichotoma was a light-loving but not light-tolerant species, with the modest low-light tolerance.