5. Brainea J. Smith, Cat. Ferns Roy. Gard. Kew. 5. 1856.
苏铁蕨属 su tie jue shu
Authors: Wang Faguo, Prof. Fuwu Xing & Masahiro Kato
Bowringia Hooker (1853), not Champion ex Bentham (1852).
Tree ferns, terrestrial. Stem erect, very stout, dictyostelic, woody, apex scaly; scales rufous, linear, membranous, acuminate. Fronds clustered in terminal crown, slightly dimorphic; stipe with basal part scaly; lamina pinnate, elliptic-lanceolate in outline, leathery, abaxially with some small scales along costa and veins; pinnae opposite or alternate, subsessile, entire, linear to narrowly oblong; basal pinnae slightly shorter; veins free, simple or 1- or 2-forked, except for costal row of subtriangular areoles; fertile pinnae somewhat shorter, margin sometimes irregularly lobed; rachis grooved adaxially. Sori borne on costal veins, abundant, covering whole abaxial surface of pinnae when mature, indusium absent. 2n = 66.
One species: widely distributed in tropical Asia.
The monotypic genus Brainea is isolated from the rest of the family.
