芒刺高山耳蕨 mang ci gao shan er jue

Aspidium prescottianum Wallich ex Mettenius, Abh. Senckenberg. Naturf. Ges. 2: 332. Aug 1858; Polystichum erinaceum Ching & S. K. Wu.

Plants summer-green. Rhizome erect, covered with broadly lanceolate dark brown scales. Fronds 30-40 cm; stipe 8-12 cm, ca. 3 mm in diam. at base, lower part persistent, stramineous, scaly; scales light brown, ovate, lanceolate, and linear. Lamina bipinnatifid, oblanceolate, 28-38 × 3-4 cm, gradually contracted toward base, acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, adaxially covered with scales; scales light brown, lanceolate and hairlike. Pinnae 30-32 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis, hardly approximate, sessile, narrowly deltoid-ovate or deltoid-ovate, middle pairs 1.5-2 cm × 8-9 mm, bases slightly auriculate acroscopically and basiscopically, pinnatipartite to or nearly to pinna rachis, apices acuminate or obtuse, aristate. Lobes 4-6 pairs, nearly opposite, slightly ascendant, hardly approximate, oblong, apices acuminate or obtuse, margins with small teeth, tips of teeth aristate; microscales on abaxial surface light brown, linear and filiform; microscales on adaxial surface sparse, brown, hairlike; frond texture papery; venation pinnate on lobes, indistinct abaxially, somewhat distinct adaxially. Sori on upper pinnae, often in 1 row on each side of pinna rachis; indusia present, subentire.

Alpine meadows, Abies forests; 3300-3900 m (in Xizang). Taiwan, Xizang (Cona, Nyalam) [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Nepal].

Polystichum prescottianum is common in the Himalaya.