正宇耳蕨 zheng yu er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, short, 0.7-2 cm in diam. including stipe bases, rhizome apex and basal stipe scaly; scales reddish brown (sometimes partially blackish purple), ovate-lanceolate, up to 3 mm, membranous, with dense small teeth. Fronds 7-25 cm; stipe stramineous, 1-4 cm, 0.5-1 mm in diam., upper base sparsely scaly, scales similar to basal stipe scales. Lamina green when dry, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 4.5-18 × 0.8-2 cm at middle, below middle often gradually ± contracted toward base, 1-pinnate, apex pinnatilobate to pinnatipartite, often shortly acuminate; rachis stramineous, without proliferous bulbils, abaxially sparsely scaly; scales reddish brown, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, membranous, sparsely toothed. Pinnae 16-45 pairs, approximate or imbricate, alternate or nearly opposite, attached at right angles to rachis or slightly ascendant, lower pairs shortly stalked, upper pairs sessile, nearly oblong, apices acute, slightly curved upward, acroscopic base auriculate; auricles nearly deltoid, with aristate spinules, proximal margins of auricles truncate or slightly curved, parallel to rachis or overlapping rachis, basiscopic margins narrowly cuneate, truncate, margins entire, distal basiscopic margins and whole acroscopic margins (including auricle margins) with up to 10 teeth, tips of teeth with aristate spinules; adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely covered with lanceolate and linear light brown microscales; frond texture papery; venation visible on both surfaces, pinnate, lateral veins reaching tips of teeth, dichotomous or simple above midrib, simple below midrib. Sori small, terminal on shorter veinlets, close to pinna margin, 5 at most above midrib, 1-3 or none below midrib, often merging when mature; indusia present, dark brown, erose, evanescent. Spores reniform in equatorial view; perispore sculpturing sparsely plicate.

● Shaded wet limestone crevices in broad-leaved evergreen forests or in limestone caves; 600-1700 m. Chongqing (Fengjie, Jinfo Shan), ?Guangxi, Guizhou (Anshun, Daozhen, Jiangkou), Hunan (Fenghuang, Sangzhi, Shimen).