韭菜坪鳞毛蕨 jiu cai ping lin mao jue

Plants perennial, caespitose, ca. 1.1 m tall or more. Rhizome erect, ca. 6 cm, 1.4-2 cm in diam., glabrous. Fronds 15-20 per rhizome; stipe dark brown and glabrate at base, light brown and scaly above, 44-45 cm, 0.8-1 cm wide at base; scales light brown, narrowly lanceolate and filiform, margins slightly cilate; lamina oblong to narrowly ovate, 1-pinnate, 63-68 cm, 24-27 cm wide at middle, slightly contracted toward base, abruptly narrowed to pinnately acuminate apex; rachis light brown, 3-4 mm in diam., with dense, narrowly lanceolate to linear, filiform scales ca. 7 × 0.9 mm; pinnae 20-25 pairs, narrowly elliptic, herbaceous or thinly papery, slightly ascending, basal 2 or 3 pairs opposite, upper pairs alternate, symmetrical at base and broadly cuneate or shallowly cordate, stalked, lobed shallowly to halfway to pinna rachis (sometimes pinnatipartite at pinna bases), acuminate at apex; pinnae at middle of lamina largest, 13-14 × 2.5-3 cm; pinnae in lower part of lamina slightly contracted; basalmost pinnae 10-12 × 2.5-3 cm; pinnae adaxially dark green when dry, glabrous, abaxially yellowish green, with sparse microscales; microscales brown, hairlike, ca. 0.4 mm; pinna rachis with sparse filiform scales; pinna lobes up to 15(-20) pairs, oblong, obtuse and toothed at apex, entire laterally; venation pinnate, lateral veins unbranched on lobes, those on adaxial surface glabrous, those on abaxial surface ± with filiform scales. Sori orbicular, 0.8-1.2 mm in diam., 1-2.8 mm apart from each other, in multiple rows on each side of pinna rachis, in 1 row on each side of vein on lobes, 2-5 per row; sporangia ca. 0.08 mm in diam.; indusia yellowish green when young, dark brown when mature, reniform, 0.4-0.8 mm in diam., thin, persistent.

● Sinkholes; ca. 2500 m. NW Guizhou (Hezhang).