星蕨 xing jue

Acrostichum punctatum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 2: 1524. 1763; Phymatodes lingulata (Swartz) C. Presl; Pleopeltis punctata (Linnaeus) Beddome; Polypodium lingulatum Swartz; P. punctatum (Linnaeus) Swartz (1801), not Thunberg (1784).

Rhizome shortly creeping, subcylindrical, thick, 4-8 mm in diam., white waxy beneath scales. Scales pseudopeltate (sometimes peltate), appressed or slightly spreading, ovate or narrowly ovate or triangular, 1.5-8 × 0.5-3 mm, margin entire to denticulate to dentate, apex acute, clathrate or subclathrate, cells small, ± isodiametric or cells longitudinally rectangular, central region bearing multiseptate hairs at least when young or central region glabrous. Fronds not or slightly dimorphic. Stipe present or absent and lamina decurrent to its base. Lamina simple, narrowly obovate or narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic to linear, 10-175 × 1.5-15 cm, herbaceous to subleathery (sometimes leathery), base narrowly decrescent, stipe winged for a considerable part to cuneate-decrescent or truncate to obtuse to cordate, auriculate, margin entire or undulate, apex acute to acuminate to rounded. Veins ± sunken and indistinct, or prominent and distinct. Sori separate, small, many, mostly irregularly scattered on smallest veinlets, in up to 8 irregular rows between costa and margin, up to 3 rows between adjacent costules, or some connate, elongate on veinlets, orbicular or elongate, superficial or slightly sunken, on whole surface of lamina or absent from basal parts; paraphyses with apical cell not enlarged.

Epiphytic, but also epilithic or terrestrial in various types of forests, sometimes in savanna but also in wet places; sea level to 700 m (in Taiwan). Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa (widespread), Australia, Indian Ocean islands (Mascarene Islands), Madagascar, Pacific islands].

Microsorum punctatum is a very widespread and variable species; see Nooteboom (Blumea 42: 353-354. 1997) for a more complete synonymy. Linnaeus’s type, "Habitat in China. J. Fothergill," appears to have been lost.