9. Aleuritopteris tamburii (Hooker) Ching, Hong Kong Naturalist. 10: 198. 1941.
阔羽粉背蕨 kuo yu fen bei jue
Rhizomes erect, short; scales bicolorous, brown or reddish brown with lighter margins, lanceolate. Fronds clustered. Stipe reddish brown, lustrous, 10-35 cm, scaly at base; scales mostly bicolorous, narrowly lanceolate. Lamina pentagonal, 8-15(-24) × 6-12(-18) cm, tripinnatifid to pinnate-bipinnatifid, herbaceous or papery when dry, abaxially with snow-white farina or rarely glabrous, adaxially glabrous; rachis and costae chestnut-brown. Pinnae 3-5 pairs, sessile, connected by broad wings, distal lobes oblong, oblong-triangular, or nearly semicircular, with narrow V-shaped sinuses between lobes; basal pair largest, 7-8 × 4-5 cm, triangular, obliquely spreading upward, 2-pinnatifid, medial pinnae rounded or bluntly pointed at tips; pinnules 4 or 5 pairs, basal basiscopic pinnule largest; second pair of pinnae shorter than basal and third ones, simple, triangular; other pairs gradually shortened distally; ultimate segments closely spaced, deltoid or ovate, broad, apex obtuse. Veins pinnate, distinct. Sori consisting of 3 to several sporangia, borne at vein tips. False indusia continuous, narrow, margins entire.
Thickets, rock crevices in dry hot valleys; 1900-2700 m. S Sichuan, NW Yunnan [India, Nepal].
Aleuritopteris tamburii is easily distinguished from related taxa in its large fronds that are coarsely dissected and with broad, somewhat rounded ultimate segments.
