花山耳蕨 hua shan er jue

Polystichum daguanense Ching ex L. L. Xiang var. huashanicola W. M. Chu & Z. R. He, Acta Bot. Yunnan. 22: 257. 2000 ["huashanicolum"].

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, short. Fronds 19-33 cm; stipe pale greenish stramineous, 2.5-6.7 cm, ca. 1 mm in diam. at base, upper stipe base sparsely scaly to rachis; scales often appressed, dark brown, ovate, membranous, with irregular fine teeth. Lamina 1-pinnate, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 10-25 × 1.5-2.4 cm at middle, truncate or slightly broadly cuneate, sometimes slightly becoming shallowly cordate, acuminate; rachis pale greenish stramineous, without proliferous bulbils. Pinnae up to 30 pairs, alternate or nearly opposite, attached at right angles with rachis, approximate, subsessile, nearly rectangular, middle pairs 7-15 × 2.5-5 mm, basal pairs 5-11 × 2.4-5 mm, apices acute, bases asymmetrical, acroscopic base with deltoid auricles, proximal acroscopic margins of pinnae overlapping rachis, acroscopic margins substraight, basiscopic base narrowly cuneate, distal basiscopic margins curved, acroscopic margins of pinnae with 7-9 regular coarse teeth, ca. 1/2 of basiscopic margins of pinnae serrate and with 4 teeth, teeth shortly spinulose and slightly open; adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely scaly; microscales light brown, appressed, ovate or lanceolate, membranous; frond texture papery; venation distinct on both surfaces, pinnate; lateral veins often dichotomous above midrib, simple below midrib, veinlets nearly reaching pinna margin. Sori small, obviously not contiguous when mature, terminal on shorter veinlets, close to pinna margin, 1-5 above midrib, 1 or 2 below midrib and on apical part, auricles and lower part of basiscopic margins without sori; indusia present, light brown, subentire, persistent.

● Wet rock crevices in bushes in limestone valleys, limestone sinkholes; 1900-2100 m. NE Yunnan (Zhengxiong).

Polystichum huashanicola was treated as a variety of P. daguanense in FRPS (5(2): 147. 2001). The two taxa are different in a number of aspects (see key) and should be treated as two species. It remains unclear if they are closely related.