宁陕耳蕨 ning shan er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect or ascending, short, densely covered with linear brown scales. Fronds 50-70 cm; stipe yellowish brown, 25-40 cm, 4-5 mm in diam. at base, sparsely covered with linear, lanceolate, light brown scales and larger scales; large scales light brown and bicolorous, ovate and ovate-lanceolate; bicolorous scales sparse, castaneous at middle, shiny, up to 13 × 5 mm, with sparse irregular teeth or subentire, caudate. Lamina bipinnate, oblong, 30-40 × 20-25 cm at middle, gradually contracted toward base, lower part sterile, apex acuminate, fertile; rachis without proliferous bulbils, abaxially sparsely or densely covered with linear, lanceolate, light brown scales and larger scales; large scales dense, ovate-lanceolate and broadly lanceolate, up to 9 × 3.5 mm, with dense small teeth, long acuminate to caudate. Pinnae 20-28 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis, shortly stalked, lanceolate, bases asymmetrical, apices acuminate; middle pinnae 11-12 × 2.2-2.6 cm, 1-pinnate; costa narrowly winged, adaxially sulcate, abaxially covered with linear, subulate, brown scales. Pinnules 9-14 pairs, alternate, subsessile, oblong, 1-1.4 cm × 5-7 mm, bases cuneate and decurrent, acroscopic margins entire or subentire, shortly and finely spinulose, with rounded auricles, indistinct, basiscopic margins finely long spinulose, apices acute with acute tips; basal acroscopic pinnules largest, sometimes incised; both surfaces densely covered with long-filiform light brown microscales; frond texture thinly papery; venation pinnate, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, dichotomous, distinct. Sori (1 or)3-5 pairs per pinnule, in 1 row on each side of midrib, close to margins, terminal on veinlets; indusia present, entire.

● Forests; 1200-1600 m. Shaanxi (Ningshan, Zhen’an).

Polystichum ningshenense is similar to P. braunii; but only a few pinnae of lower lamina of the former are slightly contracted, and its sori are close to the pinnule margins.