反折耳蕨 fan zhe er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome ascending or erect, short, 1-2 cm in diam. including stipe bases, rhizome apex and basal stipe densely scaly; scales acuminately ovate or ovate-lanceolate, up to 7 × ca. 2.5 mm, margins fimbriate, membranous or thickly membranous, marginate, central cells longitudinally arranged (long axes of cells in longitudinal direction), sides of marginal cells irregularly curved, basal stipe scales mixed with smaller scales; smaller scales reddish brown, membranous, broadly ovate, margins fimbriate, apices caudate, cells undulate, not rectangular. Fronds 20-55 cm; stipe light stramineous, 2-15 cm, 0.5-1.5 mm in diam., sparsely scaly from basal stipe to rachis; scales similar to basal stipe scales but smaller and often appressed. Lamina green or grayish green when dry, sometimes light brown, darker adaxially, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 15-40 × 2.5-5.5 cm at middle, 1-3 cm wide at base, widest at middle, gradually contracted downward, 1-pinnate, apex pinnatifid and long acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, light stramineous. Pinnae 15-45 pairs, alternate or nearly opposite, sessile, remote to contiguous below, sometimes upper pinnae imbricate, pinnae reflexed, except apical pinnae sometimes attached at right angles with rachis or slightly angled acroscopically, oblong-falcate to oblong, apices acute, bases obviously asymmetrical, acroscopic base with deltoid auricles, apex of auricles acute, crenate, proximal margins of auricles truncate, parallel to rachis, or raised outward and curved, sometimes slightly overlapping rachis, distal part of acroscopic margins of pinnae truncate or slightly curved inward and crenate, or sometimes with regular or irregular obtuse or acute teeth, teeth sometimes with short acute tips, basal basiscopic margins narrowly cuneate, truncate or slightly recurved, margins entire, distal basiscopic margins slightly angled acroscopically and curved; adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely scaly, microscales light brown to brown, narrowly lanceolate; frond texture papery. Sori small, terminal on shorter veinlets, close to pinna margin; indusia present, light brown or nearly gray, entire or slightly shallowly repand, evanescent.

● On rocks in broad-leaved evergreen forests; 1000-2600 m. NW and SW Yunnan.