密腺羽节蕨 mi xian yu jie jue

Rhizomes long creeping, apex clothed with brownish ovate-lanceolate scales. Fronds distant; fertile fronds 18-40 cm; stipe stramineous, 11-25 cm, 0.5-1 mm in diam., base sparsely scaly, upper part glabrate; lamina 2-pinnate to 3-pinnatifid, deltoid-ovate, 7-13 × 4-8 cm, herbaceous or papery, base rounded, apex acuminate; pinnae 5-8 pairs, opposite, oblique, basal 3 or 4 pairs stalked, articulate to rachis, basal pair largest, narrowly triangular, 4.5-8.5 × 3-4.5 cm at base, base subtruncate, with stalk 6-13 cm, slightly oblique, pinnate, apex acuminate; pinnules 4-6 pairs, opposite or subopposite, deltoid-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, base broadly cuneate, basal 1 or 2 pairs articulate to costae, subsessile, apex acuminate; basal basiscopic pinnules longest, descending, 1.5-2.7 cm × 6-8 mm, pinnate or pinnatipartite; pinnule segments 5-7 pairs, oblong to narrowly ovate, separate or adnate at base, crenate, apex rounded-obtuse; second basal pair of pinnae 1.7-3.3 cm apart from basal pinnae, narrowly triangular, much smaller than basal pinnae, 2-5.5 cm; third and upper pairs of pinnae broadly lanceolate, gradually smaller; veins pinnate in segment, simple, sometimes forked, oblique, visible; stipe (at least upper part), lower part of rachis, costae, and midribs pubescent with short glands. Sori small, orbicular or oblong, abaxial on veins, submarginal, exindusiate.

● Shaded places in forests, mountain slopes; 1500-2500 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang.

One of us (Pryer) notes that Gymnocarpium robertianum (Hoffmann) Newman (Phytologist 4: append. xxiv. 1851; Polypodium robertianum Hoffmann, Deutschl. Fl. 2: add. et emend. 10. 1795), which was treated as conspecific with G. altaycum in FRPS (3(2): 70-71. 1999), is glandular on both sides of the upper stipe, firm and stiff in texture, and moderately glandular on the adaxial as well as the abaxial surface, including on the laminae.