金佛山耳蕨 jin fo shan er jue

Plants evergreen, small. Rhizome ascending or erect, short, 4-8 mm in diam. including stipe bases, rhizome apex and basal stipe scaly; scales brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous, sparsely toothed. Fronds 4-12 cm; stipe stramineous or pale greenish stramineous, 0.5-4 cm, less than 0.5 mm in diam., distal stipe scales similar to basal stipe scales in shape and color but smaller. Lamina light green when dry, adaxially darker, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5-10 × 1-2 cm at middle, gradually slightly contracted below middle, 7-15 mm wide at base, 1-pinnate, apex obtuse or nearly acute, rarely shortly acuminate, often pinnatilobate to pinnatifid. Pinnae 5-22 pairs, alternate or nearly opposite, often approximate or imbricate, sometimes slightly remote, lower pairs very shortly stalked, upper pairs sessile, attached at right angles to rachis or slightly angled basiscopically, oblong, middle pinnae 4-11 × 2.5-7 mm, apices rounded-truncate or truncate, mucronate or shortly spinulose, bases asymmetrical, above midrib wider, bases without distinct auricles, margins with fewer than 10 coarse teeth; teeth irregular, acute or shortly spinulose apically, or shallowly lobed; basal basiscopic margins narrowly cuneate, margins entire, straight or slightly angled inward and curved, distal basiscopic margins nearly truncate and with 1-3 coarse teeth similar to those on acroscopic margins; adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely covered with light brown lanceolate and shortly linear microscales; frond texture papery; venation pinnate, slightly distinct on both surfaces, midrib slender, slightly zigzag, lateral veins dichotomous or simple, acroscopic base sometimes trifurcate, nearly reaching pinna margin. Sori terminal on shorter veinlets, close to pinna margin, 1-4 above midrib, 1 or 2 or sterile on upper part of pinnae below midrib; indusia present, dark brown, repand. Spores semicircular in equatorial view, orbicular or nearly orbicular in polar view; perispore sculpturing plicate.

● Shaded limestone crevices in montane broad-leaved evergreen forests; 800-2000 m. Chongqing (Jinfo Shan), Guizhou (Zhenning), Sichuan (Emei Shan, Pengzhou), NE Yunnan (Yiliang, Zhenxiong).

Polystichum jinfoshanense is often hard to identify. It is similar to P. liui but has fewer and larger pinnae, shorter laminae, and no spinules on the pinna margin except for the pinna tip.