维明耳蕨 wei ming er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, short; scales brown, linear-lanceolate. Fronds 30-50(-107) cm; stipe yellowish green, 6.5-18 cm, 1.5-2(-2.5) mm in diam. at middle; basal stipe scales brown, dull, linear-lanceolate, ca. 10 × 1 mm, papery, obtusely toothed, acuminate; distal stipe scales similar but narrower and shorter, brown, dull, linear-lanceolate to linear, tortuous, papery, sparsely shortly toothed, caudate. Lamina bipinnate, shiny green adaxially when fresh, deltoid-lanceolate, 24-33(-74) × 4.6-8.2(-28) cm, not contracted toward base, acuminate at apex; rachis ca. 1.5 mm in diam., without proliferous bulbils; rachis scales brown, linear and tortuous, 0.25-0.5 mm, deltoid at base. Pinnae 15-23(-27) pairs, alternate, attached at nearly right angles to rachis, slightly (or strongly) angled upward, lanceolate, shortly stalked, pinnate, acute or acuminate; middle pinnae 2.3-6.5(-22) × 1.2-2.8(-3.2) cm, basal second and third pairs of pinnae slightly larger than others, basalmost pairs of pinnae smallest; costa ca. 0.5 mm in diam.; costa scales brown, linear and tortuous. Pinnules 5-12 (-24) pairs, basal two pairs 2-4 cm apart, alternate, attached at ca. 80° angle to rachis, falcate-deltoid, 0.6-1.1(-1.6) × 0.25-0.35(-0.7) cm, shortly stalked; basal acroscopic pinnules auriculate, cuneate, shallowly undulate, mucronate; abaxially scaly, adaxially glabrous; microscales on abaxial surface linear and tortuous; frond texture papery; midrib raised abaxially, concave adaxially; lateral veins free, once dichotomously branched, ca. 4(-8) pairs from midrib per pinnule, raised and obvious abaxially, indistinct adaxially. Sori terminal on veins, (3-)5-8 (-14) sori per fertile pinnule, at middle between midrib and pinnule margin; indusia dark brown at middle, brown elsewhere, ca. 0.8 mm in diam., membranous, lacerate. Spores 40(26.4-57.1) × 46.4(35.7-78.6) × 42.9(28.6-68.6) µm (polar axis × long equatorial axis × short equatorial axis, respectively); perispore sculpturing striate with perforations.

● Open canopies of large Caryota urens in ravines, red soil on limestone walls in low light beneath dense papery plants; 1300-2100 m. S Yunnan (Gengma, Mengzi).

It is possible that Polystichum weimingii also occurs in parts of Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam bordering Yunnan.

The fronds of the tallest individual of this species at the type locality can reach 107 × 28 cm.