七指蕨属 qi zhi jue shu

Authors: Zhang Xianchun & Norio Sahashi

Ophiala Desvaux.

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial, evergreen. Rhizomes shortly creeping, dorsiventral with fronds in 2 rows on dorsal side; buds glabrous; roots thick. Fronds solitary, sterile lamina perpendicular to common stipe, ternate with large basal pinnae divided into few pinnules, thus appearing palmately dissected as a whole; veins free, forked into parallel close veinlets. Sporophore attached at base of sterile lamina, spikelike, cylindrical; sporangia globose, born in pseudowhorls on radially arranged stalked clusters interspersed with small sterile projections. Spores trilete, globose, surface reticulate, with delicate projections ± fused baculate. n = 94.

One species: widely distributed in tropics and subtropics of the Old World.

Lower Taxon

• Helminthostachys zeylanica (Linnaeus) Hooker