台湾轴果蕨 tai wan zhou guo jue

Diplazium pulchrum Tagawa, Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 4: 144. 1935.

Rhizome erect, up to 4 cm in diam. (including remaining stipe bases), apex densely scaly; scales yellow, lanceolate or linear, up to 1 cm, membranous, entire. Fertile frond up to 2 m; stipe brown at base, upward stramineous, up to 1 m, up to 5 mm in diam. at base, sparsely scaly, scales similar to those on rhizome, upward subglabrous; lamina pinnate to nearly 3-pinnate, deltoid, up to 1 m ´ 80 cm, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 15 pairs, alternate, ascending, usually narrowly ovate-lanceolate, base slightly asymmetrical with anadromous pinnules shorter, apex shortly caudate; basal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae largest, up to 50 ´ 20 cm, stalked (stalk 2-3 cm), nearly 2-pinnate; pinnules spreading, separate, deltoid-lanceolate, up to 11 ´ 4 cm, asymmetrical, acroscopic lobes larger, lower pinnules stalked, stalk short, narrowly winged, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, or nearly pinnatisect, apex caudate, long acuminate; pinnule lobes up to 10 pairs or more, basal lobes mostly ovate, other lobes elliptic or oblong, base slightly asymmetrical, acroscopic base larger, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, or only sparsely crenate, apex obtuse. Laminae green or pale green, slightly deeper colored adaxially, thinly membranous when dry, rachis and costae stramineous. Sori mostly narrowly elliptic, rarely lunate, costular, oblique; indusia pale green when young, pale brown. Perispore with flattened tuberculate ornamentation.

● Valleys, evergreen broad-leaved forests, among shrubs; 500-1400 m. Taiwan, Yunnan (Fugong, Yinjiang).

Rhachidosorus pulcher is very similar to R. blotianus in the morphology of lamina, pinnules, and pinnule lobes, so the two species have usually been considered conspecific; however, they differ in spore ornamentation.