菜阳河凤尾蕨 cai yang he feng wei jue

Plants ca. 50 cm tall. Rhizome ascending, short, ca. 5 mm in diam., apex with yellow-brownish scales. Fronds monomorphic, clustered; stipe ca. 2 × as long as lamina, 1-2 mm in diam., mauve (as on rachis and frond margin), with yellow-brownish scales at base, glabrous, ± rough; lamina 2-pinnatipartite, 3-forked, ovate-triangular in outline, 15-20 × 10-15 cm; lateral pinnae 1 pair, with basiscopic pinnule similar to terminal pinna; segments 2-25 pairs, opposite or subopposite, contiguous, subspreading, somewhat falcate, 20-30 × ca. 5 mm, entire or sometimes slightly undulate, apex mucronate or obtuse, and with a protuberance; terminal pinna broadly lanceolate, basally broadly cuneate, stalked (1-2 cm), pectinate nearly to costae, apically tapering; costae prominent abaxially, glabrous, grooved adaxially, with 2-3 mm spine at intersecting point of segments and costa; veins conspicuous on both surfaces, 2-forked at base of segments, lateral veins of segment base arising from rachis; lamina green with mauve margins, subherbaceous when dried, glabrous. Indusia flavescent.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, monsoon forests; 800-1000 m. Yunnan (Simao).

Pteris caiyangheensis is similar to P. aspericaulis var. aspericaulis but differs in having lamina ovate-triangular, 2-pinnatipartite, 3-forked; stipe 2 × as long as lamina; and indusia flavescent. It is treated as a synonym of P. aspericaulis var. tricolor by Zhang Xianchun in the Catalogue of Life, China (http://data.sp2000.cn/2010_cnnode_e/show_ species_details.php?name_code=90ed8812-a375-40c9-9b84-c224c315 ed89; accessed 9 Jan 2012).