心叶瓶尔小草 xin ye ping er xiao cao

Ophioglossum cordifolium Roxburgh; O. pedunculosum Dunn & Tutcher (1912), not Desvaux (1811).

Plants 10-30 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, slender, bearing a few thick fleshy roots. Common stalk 4-8 cm, light green, gradually pale toward base. Sterile lamina with a short stalk or almost sessile, ovate or orbicular-ovate, 3-4 × 2.6-3.5 cm, herbaceous, base deeply cordate, margin ± wavy, apex rounded or subobtuse; veins distinct, reticulate. Sporophore arising from base of sterile lamina, slender, 10-15 cm; spike 3-3.5 cm, slender. Spore surface regularly or irregularly subreticulate. 2n = 240-1280.

Shaded forests; 1100-4000 m. Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, ?Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Korea; Africa, Madagascar, South America].

For a discussion on the unconfirmed status in Taiwan, see Knapp (Ferns Fern Allies Taiwan, 469-470. 2011).