圆果蹄盖蕨 yuan guo ti gai jue

Rhizomes short, stout, ascending, apex clothed with brown, lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 20-80 cm; stipe brown, up to 25 cm, 2.5-3 mm in diam., base scaly, upward glabrate; lamina 2-pinnate to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, ovate-triangular, ca. 35 × 30 cm at base, base broadly ovate, apex shortly acuminate; pinnae 10-12 pairs, alternate, ascending, stalked (stalk 5-12 mm), basal 2 or 3 pairs of pinnae equal in size, oblong-lanceolate, 15-16 × 5-8 cm, base equilateral, truncate, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, apex long acuminate; pinnules ca. 15 pairs, alternate, spreading, stalked (stalk 1-2 mm), deltoid-lanceolate, middle pinnules 2.3-4 × 1.4-2 cm, base inequilateral, auriculate on acroscopic side, cuneate on basiscopic side, pinnate, apex obtuse; secondary pinnules 7 or 8 pairs, basal acroscopic one larger, ovate, 8-9 mm, pinnatilobate; others oblong, ca. 4 × 1.5-2.5 mm, subentire or slightly toothed, obtuse-rounded at apex; segments entire or sparsely crenulate with 1 or 2 teeth; upper pinnae gradually narrower, lower pinnules not shortened; distal pinnae lanceolate, auriculate at acroscopic base. Veins ± visible adaxially, clearly visible abaxially, pinnate on ultimate pinnules, lateral veins simple or forked on basal acroscopic side. Lamina herbaceous when dried, blackish brown adaxially, pale brown abaxially; rachis and costae brown, glabrate. Sori small, orbicular, on top of basal acroscopic veinlets in segments or supramedial on acroscopic veins, 1 sorus per segment; indusia brown, orbicular-reniform, elliptic or horseshoe-shaped, membranous, entire, persistent. Perispore surface with few folds.

● Coniferous forests, shrub groves; 1900-3800 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.