黑秆蹄盖蕨 hei gan ti gai jue

Aspidium brunonianum Wallich ex Mettenius; Dryopteris brunoniana (Wallich ex Mettenius) Kuntze; Lastrea brunoniana C. Presl; Nephrodium brunonianum Hooker.

Rhizomes short, ascending, apex along with stipes densely scaly; scales brown or somewhat chestnut-black, shiny, ovate-lanceolate or fibriform. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds (14-) 40-60 cm; stipe usually (4-)5-10(-15) cm, (1-)3-4 mm in diam., stipes and rachises blackish brown; lamina pinnate, oblanceolate, (10-)20-50 × (3-)5-7 cm at middle, narrowed toward base, base 2-2.5 cm wide, apex obtuse; pinnae (12-) 20-30 pairs, pinnatilobate to pinnatipartite, lower pinnae opposite, upper pinnae alternate, approximate, slightly ascending, sessile, lower (2-)6-10 pairs of pinnae gradually shortened; basal pinnae ovate-triangular, ca. 1 cm; middle pinnae oblong, 2-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm, equilateral, subtruncate, sessile or adnate, pinnatipartite, apex obtuse-rounded and shortly serrate; pinna segments 6-8 pairs, spreading, approximate, ovate, basal segments slightly larger, 4-5 mm long and wide, often revolute when dried, bidentate, teeth triangular, acute at apex, spreading. Veins visible abaxially, pinnate in segments, 3 or 4 pairs, mostly simple, extending into teeth. Lamina thickly papery when dried, brown, glabrate, with dense red-brown or chestnut-black, lanceolate or linear scales only on rachis. Sori orbicular or broadly ovate, abaxial on acroscopic veins (often on both veins of basal acroscopic forked veins), 2-4 pairs per segment, median, exindusiate. Perispore surface with folds, obscurely granular.

Rock crevices in forests, alpine shrub meadows; 3500-4800 m. Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, N Myanmar, Nepal, N Pakistan].