乌毛蕨 wu mao jue

Blechnopsis orientalis (Linnaeus) C. Presl.

Rhizome dark brown, erect, short, densely scaly; scales dark brown at center, brown near margin, narrowly linear, ca. 1 cm, entire. Stipe 10-60 cm, 3-10 mm in diam., base dark brown and covered with scales as rhizome; lamina imparipinnate, monomorphic, ovate-lanceolate, 55-100 × 20-60 cm, subleathery; pinnae numerous, close, alternate; lower ones contracted to small rounded auricles, 0.3-1 cm; upper ones oblique, distant, linear or linear-lanceolate, 10-30 × 0.8-1.8 cm, base sessile, rounded or subtruncate, or adnate, decurrent to rachis on basiscopic side, gradually narrowed to acuminate apex, terminal pinna similar to middle pinnae; veins free, parallel, simple or forked near costa, close. 2n = 66.

Exposed shrubby or low hillsides; 200-1000 m. Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan; tropical Asia, Australia, Pacific islands].

Reviewer Christenhusz notes that, in an unpublished molecular phylogeny, Blechnum orientale is more closely related to the New World genus Salpichlaena J. Smith and to Stenochlaena than Blechnum s.s., typified by B. occidentale Linnaeus, or Struthiopteris s.s., represented by B. spicant (Linnaeus) Roth.

Plants with cristate apices to the lateral pinnae have been called "Blechnum orientale var. cristatum" (冠羽乌毛蕨 guan yu wu mao jue), but that name appears not to have been validly published. It has been attributed to J. Smith, but it is not mentioned in the publication cited in FRPS, i.e., Seemann, Bot. Voy. Herald 10: 427. 1857 (incorrectly cited as "Bot. Beechey Voy. 1"), which refers only to B. orientale.