灰白方杆蕨 hui bai fang gan jue

Plants ca. 82 cm tall. Rhizomes decumbent, woody, with 1 or 2 brown broadly lanceolate thick scales. Fronds sparse; stipes ca. 28 cm, stramineous, grooved adaxially, glabrous throughout; laminae oblong, ca. 56 × 22 cm, slightly tapering to bases, pinnate-pinnatifid, acuminate and pinnatifid at apices; pinnae ca. 26 pairs, sessile, opposite, distal ones alternate, spreading, close, without interval, proximal pair slightly shortened and slightly reflexed, ca. 10 cm, tapering to bases; second pair of pinnae falcate-lanceolate, ca. 12 × 2.4 cm, bases truncate and close to rachises, pinnatifid nearly to costae, apices acuminate; segments ca. 28 pairs, spreading, separated by narrow interval, falcate-lanceolate, ca. 1.3 cm (basal acroscopic one longer), ca. 0.3 cm wide, entire, pointed at apices. Veins fine, not evident, veinlets 10-12 pairs per segment, proximal pair reaching margins above sinuses. Laminae papery when dry, greenish, adaxially with dense setae along grooves of rachises, veins and intercostal areas with sparse hairs, abaxially with dense long setae along costae and veins, occasionally sparsely hairy on intercostal areas. Sori orbicular, 4 or 5 pairs per segment, attached at bases of veinlets and in one row on each side of costules; indusia small and hairy. Sporangia each with 1 or 2 acicular hairs near tops.

● Shaded wet places in mixed forests on limestone mountains; ca. 1500 m. NE Yunnan.