白边瓦韦 bai bian wa wei

Polypodium morrisonense Hayata, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 23: 77. 1909.

Plants 10-30 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, strong, densely scaly; scales deep brown, broadly lanceolate; middle lumina small, square to rectangular, cell walls thickened, cell cavities narrow, opaque, margins brownish and transparent and usually erose, apex acuminate, attached by one point. Fronds normally closely spaced; stipe straw-colored, 1-3 cm, sparsely scaly; lamina when dried greenish on both surfaces or abaxially yellowish, adaxially gray-green, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, widest at middle, 12-30 × 1-3 cm, herbaceous to thickly papery, base attenuate, decurrent, margin flat and straight, apex acuminate or shortly acute; costa raised on both sides, abaxially sparsely scaly; veinlets visible. Sori orbicular, slightly closer to costa; paraphyses brown, orbicular; lumina large, transparent.

On tree trunks or rocks in forests; 1300-4100 m. Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Nepal].

Collections named as Lepisorus morrisonensis from Yunnan have peltate, distinctly clathrate rhizome scales with dark brown walls and a transparent lumen.