西藏紫柄蕨 xi zang zi bing jue

Plants 85-90 cm tall. Rhizome long creeping, with sparse dark brown lanceolate scales. Fronds remote; stipe red-castaneous at base, shiny, 15-40 cm, base with a few scales and acicular hairs; lamina lanceolate, (15-)45-50 × (4-)12-16 cm, slightly tapering proximally, pinnate-pinnatifid (pinnules on proximal pair of pinnae often lobed), pinnatifid and long acuminate at apex; pinnae 4-17 pairs, ± opposite or subopposite, pinnae above middle ± adnate to rachis, pinnae below middle shortly stalked, proximal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae obliquely triangular, (2-)7-7.5 × 1.5-3 cm, bases asymmetrical, pinnatifid, apices acuminate; basiscopic segments largest, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 2 × 0.4-1 cm, pinnatifid, other segments entire; distal pinnae lanceolate, to 8 × 2-2.2 cm, symmetrical, pinnatifid to 1/2 distance to costae or less, acuminate at apices; segments oblong, entire. Veins visible abaxially, lateral veins forked or simple, 2-6 pairs per segment, basal pair arising from bases of costae. Fronds papery, drying yellowish green, abaxial surfaces with sparse hairs along veins and margins, rachises stramineous to brown, sparsely villous, hairs denser adaxially. Sori oblong, borne above middle of ultimate veinlets, 2-4 pairs per segment. Sporangia each with a seta below annulus.

● Dense forests; ca. 2100 m. SE Xizang.

The distinctness of Pseudophegopteris tibetana relative to P. aurita and P. yigongensis needs more study.