美丽粉背蕨 mei li fen bei jue

Rhizomes erect, short; scales concolorous, reddish brown, narrowly lanceolate. Fronds usually clustered. Stipe reddish brown, lustrous, 10-18 cm. Lamina dark green, pentagonal, nearly as long as broad, ca. 4 cm, pinnate-bipinnatifid, leathery to thinly leathery when dry, abaxially with dense snow-white farina, adaxially glabrous or with sparse white farina, apex shortly acuminate; rachis, costae, and costules dark brown, lustrous. Pinnae 3 or 4 pairs, opposite, oblique, separated from each other; basal pair largest, deltoid, ca. 2 × 2 cm, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, apex acuminate; acroscopic pinnules pinnatifid; proximal basiscopic pinnule larger, elliptic, ca. 1.5 × 1 cm, 1-pinnate-pinnatifid; second and upper pairs of pinnae gradually shortened distally, pinnatifid. Veins pinnate, obscure. Sori consisting of 1 or 2 sporangia, discrete. False indusia pale green, broad, thickly membranous.

● Rock crevices; ca. 3100 m. E Xizang (Zhag’yab).

Aleuritopteris speciosa is a rare small fern, known thus far only from the type (PE).