南碧耳蕨 nan bi er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect or ascending, short, densely covered with linear brown scales. Fronds 50-70 cm; stipe yellowish brown, 21-32 cm, up to 4.5 mm in diam. at base, densely covered with linear, lanceolate and larger scales; large scales bicolorous, blackish brown at middle, shiny, ovate-lanceolate, up to 12 × 6 mm, subentire, caudate. Lamina bipinnate, broadly lanceolate, 32-43 cm, near basal part 12-16 cm wide, base very slightly contracted, lower 1-5 pairs of pinnae sterile, apex acuminate, fertile; rachis without proliferous bulbils, abaxially covered with linear and lanceolate scales; lanceolate scales blackish brown, subentire, caudate. Pinnae 14-18 pairs, alternate, attached at ± right angles with rachis, shortly stalked, lanceolate, bases not contracted or lower pairs slightly contracted on basiscopic side, bases nearly symmetrical, apices acuminate; lower pinnae 8-11 × 2-2.4 cm, 1-pinnate; costa covered with linear brown scales. Pinnules 14-18 pairs, alternate, shortly stalked, falcate-deltoid to narrowly oblong, 0.9-1.3 cm × 5-7 mm, bases cuneate, with deltoid auricles acroscopically, margins subentire, often with short forward-pointing spinules, apex acute; basal acroscopic pinnules largest, deeply incised or pinnatilobate; abaxially sparsely covered with shortly filiform microscales, adaxially subglabrous; frond texture papery; venation pinnate, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, dichotomous, distinct. Sori 1-13 per pinnule, in 1 row on each side of midrib or only in 1 row on acroscopic side of midrib, medial, terminal on veinlets; indusia present, entire. 2n = 82.

Wet places, slight slopes by streams, wet places along small streams in mixed Phyllostachys heterocycla, Lithocarpus, and Tsuga evergreen forests, secondary Lithocarpus forests; 1100-1800 m. Fujian (Wuyi Shan), Jiangxi (Lushan) [Japan].

Polystichum otomasui may have a wider distribution in China.