乌柄耳蕨 wu bing er jue

Plants summer-green. Rhizome erect, covered with lanceolate dark brown scales. Fronds ca. 25 cm; stipe brown, 6-8 cm, ca. 2 mm in diam. at base, covered with ovate and lanceolate bicolorous scales with blackish brown centers, and mixed with lanceolate brown scales. Lamina bipinnatifid, linear-lanceolate, 19-23 × 1.6-2.8 cm, gradually contracted at base, acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, both surfaces covered with scales; scales light brown, lanceolate and linear, abaxially mixed with lanceolate dark brown scales. Pinnae 28-33 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis, approximate by a distance as wide as pinna width, sessile, narrowly deltoid-ovate, middle pairs 8-13 × 5-6 mm, bases rounded-cuneate or nearly truncate, auriculate acroscopically and basiscopically, pinnatifid to or nearly to costa pinna rachis, apices acuminate. Lobes 4-6 pairs, nearly opposite, slightly ascendant, approximate, obovate to elliptic, acroscopic margins with small teeth, apices acuminate; abaxially with few microscales, adaxially glabrous or with hairlike light brown microscales; microscales light brown, narrowly lanceolate; frond texture papery; venation pinnate on lobes, indistinct on both surfaces. Sori often on upper pinnae, in 1 row on each side of pinna rachis, sometimes 2 or 3 on basiscopic lobes; indusia present, subentire.

● Alpine meadows; 3200-4000 m. NW Yunnan (Dêqên, Weixi).