凤尾旱蕨 feng wei han jue

Pteris paupercula Christ, Bull. Acad. Int. Géogr. Bot. 16: 131. 1906; Cheilanthes paupercula (Christ) Fraser-Jenkins (2008), not (Kunze) Mettenius (1856); Mildella paupercula (Christ) C. C. Hall & Lellinger; Pellaea paupercula (Christ) Ching.

Rhizomes erect, short; scales shiny, bicolorous, dark brown to black with light brown margins, narrowly lanceolate, thick and stiff. Fronds clustered, subdimorphic (sterile fronds somewhat shorter and with slightly broader segments). Stipe straw-colored, sometimes tan proximally, 5-22 cm, terete or flattened to grooved adaxially, with concolorous, reddish brown, soft, narrowly lanceolate scales extending onto rachis, also pubescent toward tip with moderate to dense, short and sparse, longer, multicellular hairs. Rachis and costae straw-colored, densely pubescent with short, viscid hairs and sparse hairlike scales mostly adaxially. Sterile lamina shorter than fertile lamina, pale brownish green when dry, herbaceous, glabrous on both surfaces. Fertile lamina oblong, 5-15 × 3-10 cm, 2-pinnate, apex caudate; pinnae 3-7 pairs, proximal pinnae ovate-deltoid, 3-7 × 2-4 cm, shortly stalked, apex caudate. Ultimate sterile segments oblong or broadly linear, 5-6 mm wide, margins entire or occasionally obscurely crenulate. Ultimate fertile segments linear, 2-3 mm wide, base decurrent on costa, apex acuminate. Sori confluent, not interrupted at sinuses or segment tips. False indusia continuous, margins erose and sparsely ciliate.

● Rock crevices in dry valleys; 1200-2900 m. W Sichuan.

Cheilanthes christii superficially resembles some of the smaller species of Pteris, but these Pteris species have more strongly dimorphic fronds, usually with the margins of the sterile fronds finely dentate-serrulate, and stipes that are grooved and glabrous above the base.