灰白扁枝石松 hui bai bian zhi shi song

Diphasiastrum complanatum (Linnaeus) Holub var. glaucum Ching; D. multispicatum (J. H. Wilce) Holub; Diphasium multispicatum (J. H. Wilce) Rothmaler.

Plants small to medium-sized, terrestrial; stolons above ground; leaves on stolon subulate, nearly leathery, green; aerial shoots creeping, 50-80 cm. Lateral branches suberect, 6-10 cm tall, dichotomously branched with well-differentiated lateral branchlets much branched, branchlets obviously flattened; young sterile branchlets grayish white abaxially. Leaves arranged in 4 rows, dense, triangular, 1-2 × ca. 1 mm, herbaceous, midrib indistinct, base appressed on branches, sessile, margin slightly involute, entire, apex acute. Strobili (4-)8-12, terminal on peduncles (6-15 cm), pale yellow, terete, 1.2-2.5 cm; sporophylls broadly ovate, imbricate, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, margin membranous, with irregular teeth, apex acute, caudate. Sporangia enclosed.

Forests, forest margins; 1300-2100 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Xizang, S Yunnan [Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].

This species is sometimes treated as a variety, i.e., Diphasiastrum complanatum var. glaucum (see FRPS 5(2): 79. 2001).