鞭叶耳蕨 bian ye er jue

Aspidium lepidocaulon Hooker, Sp. Fil. 4: 12. 1862; Cyrtomidictyum lepidocaulon (Hooker) Ching; C. lepidocaulon var. incisa Ching.

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, short, together with basal stipe densely scaly; scales brown, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or linear, membranous, margins densely ciliate, apices filiform. Fronds dimorphic, 28-48 cm; stipe fulvous, 10-23 cm, 2-2.5 mm in diam. at middle; distal stipe scales similar but sparser and smaller. Fertile lamina 1-pinnate, green when dry, adaxially slightly shiny, broadly lanceolate, 15-26 × 5-13 cm at base, base widest or nearly so and nearly rounded, apex pinnatifid-acuminate; rachis stramineous, without proliferous bulbils, sparsely scaly abaxially; scales similar to distal stipe scales, light brown, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, margins densely ciliate, apices filiform. Pinnae 5-12 pairs, alternate, approximate, ascendant, falcate-lanceolate, 4-8 cm × 8-16 mm, shortly stalked, bases obliquely rounded and asymmetrical, margins entire, apices acuminate; acroscopic base auriculate, auricles deltoid, margins entire, apices acute, proximal margins of auricles slightly curved and nearly parallel with rachis; basal basiscopic margins rounded and forming a ± 45° angle with rachis, distal basiscopic margins strongly curved upward; abaxially densely scaly along midribs, adaxially subglabrous; microscales light brown, ovate and linear, margins ciliate, apices filiform; frond texture thickly papery or thinly leathery; venation pinnate, 4-6 in pinnate groups, indistinct on both surfaces, lateral veins forked, basal acroscopic veinlets often stopping halfway to pinna margin, other veinlets reaching pinna margin, occasionally basal veinlets of same group on same side, or of adjacent groups joining, otherwise all free. Sori small, in 2 or 3 rows on each side of midrib, abaxial or terminal on veinlets, whole fertile lamina fertile, exindusiate. Sterile lamina narrower than fertile lamina and with fewer pairs of pinnae; rachis apex often elongate and forming a long flagelliform nodding stolon with proliferous scaly bulbil.

Forests; 300-1600 m. S Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [C and S Japan, Korea].