Description from
Flora of China
Aspidium tylodes Kunze, Linnaea 24: 281. 1851 ["xylodes"]; Cyclosorus tylodes (Kunze) Panigrahi; Dryopteris ochthodes (Kunze) C. Christensen var. tylodes (Kunze) C. Christensen; D. tylodes (Kunze) Christ; Lastrea ochthodes (Kunze) T. Moore var. tylodes (Kunze) Beddome; L. tylodes (Kunze) T. Moore ["xylodes"]; Nephrodium prolixum (Willdenow) Desvaux var. tylodes (Kunze) Baker; N. tylodes (Kunze) Baker; Thelypteris tylodes (Kunze) Ching.
Plants to 1.2 m tall. Rhizomes erect, apices and bases of stipes with sparse brown lanceolate scales. Fronds clustered; stipes 25-40 cm, grayish brown at bases, distally deep stramineous and glabrous; laminae oblong-lanceolate, 45-80 × ca. 24 cm, slightly tapering to bases, pinnate-pinnatifid, acuminate-pinnatifid at apices; proximal 5-10 pairs of pinnae abruptly reduced into tuberculate aerophores; normal pinnae ca. 34 pairs, alternate, oblique distally, sessile; middle pinnae lanceolate, ca. 13 × 1.2-1.4 cm, long acuminate at apices, proximal pinnae tapering to bases, pinnae above middle slightly tapering to bases and broadly cuneate, pinnatifid; segments 40-45 pairs, obliquely spreading, ca. 5 × 1.5-2 mm, entire, pointed or obtuse-pointed at apices. Veinlets evident on both sides, 9 or 10 pairs per segment, proximal pair arising from base of costules and all reaching sinuses. Laminae firmly papery when dry, brownish, costae with acicular hairs, elsewhere glabrous. Sori orbicular, attached below middle of veinlets and close to costules; indusia orbicular-reniform, thick, glabrous, persistent.
In Kunzes protologue, the epithet "xylodes" is considered to be a misprint; it was printed as "tylodes" on pages 244 and 283. For further discussion on the spelling, see Holttum and Grimes (Kew Bull. 34: 504. 1980).
The name Nephrodium prolixum (Willdenow) Desvaux has been misapplied to material of this taxon by Dunn and Tutcher (Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew, Addit. Ser. 10: 348. 1920).
Forests by streams or on rocks; 800-4300 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, E and S Taiwan, E and S Xizang, Yunnan [India, Myanmar, N Philippines, Sri Lanka, N Thailand, Vietnam].
