裸茎瓶尔小草 luo jing ping er xiao cao

Ophioglossum parvifolium Greville & Hooker.

Plants 3-8 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, very thick, with numerous fibrous roots, usually bearing 2 or 3 fronds. Common stalk grayish green on most parts from being buried underground, 1.5-3 cm. Sterile lamina elliptic or elliptic-ovate, 1-3 × ca. 1 cm, subfleshy, base shortly cuneate, margin entire, apex acute or rounded; veins indistinct. Sporophore 4-5 cm, arising from base of sterile lamina; spike short and thick, 1-2 cm, surpassing sterile lamina 1-2 times, apex acute; sporangia 10-18 pairs. Spore surface coarsely reticulate. 2n = 240-480.

Slopes, meadows; 1800-4300 m. SW Sichuan, Xizang, C and NW Yunnan [N India, Nepal].

The spore ornamentation of Ophioglossum parvifolium from Yunnan (sample in K) is minutely reticulate. More detailed palynological studies are required. Very recent collections from SE Taiwan may represent the Japanese species O. parvum M. Nishida & Kurita (see Knapp, Web Albums Pteridophytes Gymnosperms Taiwan; https:// picasaweb. google.com/116136418529949606360?feat=email; accessed 17 Jul 2012). This will key out as O. nudicaule but differs by the smaller sterile lamina, 0.5-1.5 × 0.3-0.7 cm, shorter spike, 7-9 mm, and minutely reticulate spores.