短羽对囊蕨 duan yu dui nang jue

Basionym: Lunathyrium brevipinnum Ching & K. H. Shing ex Z. R. Wang, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 32: 85. 1994.

Rhizomes erect, short, scaly at apex, like stipe bases; scales brown, lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, membranous. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds ca. 30 cm; stipe stramineous, 5-7 cm, rarely longer, ca. 1.4 mm in diam., subglabrate; lamina pinnate-pinnatipartite, lanceolate, 20-25 × ca. 6 cm at middle, base slightly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 15 pairs, spreading, sessile, upper pinnae alternate; lower pinnae subopposite, ca. 2 cm apart, lower 2 pairs of pinnae slightly shortened; basal pinnae ca. 1.5 cm, not auriculate; middle pinnae lanceolate, ca. 3 × 1-1.3 cm, base broader, pinnatipartite to wings of costa, apex acute or shortly acuminate; pinna segments 6-8 pairs, approximate, ascending, deltoid-oblong, margin entire, apex obtuse, rarely obtuse-acute; basal segments slightly larger, up to 5 × ca. 2.6 mm, sparsely crenate. Veins visible abaxially, pinnate in segments, 3 or 4 pairs, up to 5 pairs in basal acroscopic segments, simple, oblique. Lamina herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, subglabrate, only abaxial side of costae with sparse short, brown, thin multicellular hairs. Sori 3-6 per segment, small, oblong-ovate, oblique; indusia pale green, shortly lunate, thick, margin slightly erose, persistent. Spores bilateral, perispore surface with denser rugate-saccate or papillate processes.

● Shrub groves; 2200-3000 m. Yunnan.

Deparia brevipinna is close to D. shennongensis in shape but differs by the leaves smaller, pinnae fewer, usually less than 12 pairs, shorter, usually ca. 3 cm, no more than 5 cm, slightly broadened at base, and pinna segments fewer, 5-7 pairs, rounded-obtuse or subtruncate at apex.

"Lunathyrium latibasis" (Ching in Y. L. Zhang et al., Sporae Pterid. Sin. 233. 1976), not Ching (1983), belongs here but was not validly published because no Latin description or diagnosis, or reference to such, was provided (Melbourne Code, Art. 39.1).