毛叶粉背蕨 mao ye fen bei jue

Pellaea squamosa C. Hope & C. H. Wright, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 35: 518. 1903; Cheilanthes hopeana C. Christensen; Doryopteris squamosa (C. Hope & C. H. Wright) C. Christensen.

Rhizomes erect, short; scales bicolorous, black, with light brown margins, lanceolate. Fronds clustered. Stipe 5-15 cm, chestnut-colored, densely covered with light brown, broadly lanceolate, often slightly bicolorous scales, becoming sparsely scaly with age. Lamina brownish green, pentagonal, nearly as long as broad, 5-10 cm, 3-pinnatipartite, thickly papery when dry, abaxially with snow-white farina and membranous, translucent, light brown, broadly lanceolate scales with margins erose-serrulate, adaxially glabrous, apex shortly acuminate. Pinnae 5-7 pairs, connected by a narrow wing; basal pair largest, subtriangular, 4-5 cm, obliquely spreading upward, 2-pinnatipartite; pinnules 4-6 pairs, proximal basiscopic pinnule largest, 3-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm, obliquely spreading; ultimate segments 3 or 4 pairs, 3-8 × ca. 2 mm; second and upper pairs of pinnae gradually shortened distally, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, pinnatipartite, base decurrent and connected to rachis by broad wings, apex shortly acute. Sori consisting of few sporangia. False indusia continuous, narrow, membranous, margins entire.

● Rock crevices or under shrubs in dry hot valleys; 400-1000 m. Hainan, S Yunnan.

Aleuritopteris squamosa is quite distinct and is distinguished from other species of the genus with pentagonal fronds by the presence of scales on abaxial lamina, which also has dense, snow-white farina.