台湾凤尾蕨 tai wan feng wei jue

Plants ca. 2 m tall. Rhizome not seen. Stipe light straw-colored, glabrous, adaxially grooved; lamina 3-pinnatipartite, broadly ovate in outline, 80-100 × 60-70 cm; segments of central division oblong, up to 100 × 30-35 cm, lateral branches 2, shorter than central one; pinnules more than 20 pairs, opposite or subopposite, lower ones stipitate, upper sessile, lanceolate, 20-30 × 5-7 cm, base broadly cuneate, pectinately divided to leave narrowly winged costule, apex long acuminate, serrulate; base of pinnules with several pairs of free segments; segments 30-35 pairs, alternate, subspreading, 5-8 mm apart, linear, 25-35 × ca. 3 mm, base slightly enlarged, margins flat serrate, apex acuminate; costules abaxially convex, straw-colored, sparsely multicellular brown strigose or glabrous, adaxially flat grooved, with short spines on both sides; veinlets conspicuous abaxially, flared, anastomosing to form a series of narrow areoles along costules; lamina brown-green, herbaceous when dried, brown multicellular strigose on both surfaces; rachises straw-colored, grooved adaxially.

● About 800 m. Taiwan (Wulai).

The present authors have not seen material of Pteris taiwanensis. Yang et al. (Man. Taiwan Vasc. Pl. 6: 102. 2002) considered it to be a synonym of P. semipinnata.