短羽蹄盖蕨 duan yu ti gai jue

Rhizomes erect. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds ca. 35 cm; stipe blackish brown at base, upward stramineous, up to 13 cm, ca. 2 mm in diam., base clothed with brown, narrowly ovate scales, upward glabrate; lamina pinnate or pinnate-pinnatifid, narrowly rhombic, 22-26 × 6.5-7 cm at middle, gradually narrowed toward both ends, apex acuminate; pinnae 24-26 pairs, alternate, spreading, sessile, lower 6 pairs of pinnae gradually shortened; basal pinnae oblong, less than 1 cm; middle pinnae broadly lanceolate, 11-13 × ca. 1 cm at middle, base equilateral, truncate, broadened, pinnatipartite, apex shortly acuminate; pinna segments 12-14 pairs, spreading, approximate, oblong, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm, margin lobed or biserrate, apex rounded and with 2 or 3 small teeth; veins visible abaxially, pinnate in segments, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, forked or simple. Lamina herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, glabrate on both surfaces; rachis stramineous, adaxial surface with short glandular hairs, costae pale purplish red, with squarrose-glandular hairs abaxially. Sori oblong, occasionally hooked, 3 or 4 in lower segments, 1 or 2 in upper segments, medial; indusia pallid, oblong, occasionally hooked, thinly membranous, ciliate at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds.

● Meadows at mountain summits, among rocks, streamsides in alpine mountains; 3100-4200 m. W Sichuan, Xizang.

Athyrium contingens is similar to A. filix-femina but differs by the lamina rhombic or elliptic, middle pinnae broadly lanceolate and approximate, and indusia pallid and thinly membranous.