筱英凤尾蕨 xiao ying feng wei jue

Plants 4-6.5(-7) cm tall. Rhizome ascending, ca. 1.2 cm × 3.1-4 mm, apex sparsely scaly; scales subulate, dark brown. Fronds dispersedly distichous; stipe 2.5-4(-5.5) cm, 0.4-0.6 mm in diam. at middle, adaxially grooved, smooth and glabrous above base, sparsely scaly; lamina 3-5-foliolate, most often ± pedate in outline, 2-2.5 × 2.5-4 cm; pinnae 3, digitately arranged; terminal pinna largest, ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-2.5(-3.1) × 1-1.4 cm, sessile or occasionally stalked (ca. 4 mm), base cuneate and sometimes decurrent, apex blunt; lateral pinnae opposite, oblong-obovate, 1-1.5 × 0.7-1 cm, sessile or stalked (1-1.5 mm), base cuneate or basiscopically broadly cuneate, apex rounded or blunt; usually each lateral pinna with an almost free basal basiscopic lobe, lobes mostly oblong-obovate, apex rounded or blunt; margin of pinnae and lobes entire on cuneate bases, with teeth upward on sterile pinnae and 3- or 4-toothed on each side above sori on fertile pinnae; teeth deltoid or dentate, with cartilaginous tip but not aristate; lateral veins free, spreading or slightly ascending, distinct abaxially and merely conspicuous adaxially, simple or 1(or 2) times 2-forked, almost reaching cartilaginous margins; lamina thickly papery to leathery in texture, both surfaces glabrous. Sori marginal on both sides of fertile pinna from 3-5 mm above base to 4-5 mm below apex, linear; indusia gray, ca. 0.8 mm wide, membranous, entire on margin.

● Limestone walls at openings of dry karst caves. N Guangxi, S Guizhou (Libo).