喜马拉雅蹄盖蕨 xi ma la ya ti gai jue

Asplenium fimbriatum Hooker, Sp. Fil. 3: 234. 1859-1860, not Kunze (1844).

Rhizomes short, stout, erect, apex densely clothed with dull brown or red-brown, linear-lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds (25-)60-80(-130) cm; stipe often pale purplish red, (10-)20-25(-40) cm, (1-)2-3.5(-8) mm in diam., base similarly densely scaly; lamina pinnate, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, (15-)40-50(-80) × (4-)15-30(-40) cm, base ± rounded, apex long acuminate; pinnae pinnatisect to 3-pinnate with secondary pinnules pinnatilobate; pinnae 10-12(-20) pairs, alternate, ascending or slightly curved, with stalk 5-10 mm, lower 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae slightly or hardly shortened, middle pinnae lanceolate, 15-30 × 2-3(-10) cm, base inequilateral, auriculate and parallel to rachis on acroscopic side, truncate on basiscopic base, 2-pinnate, apex acuminate, caudate; pinnules 12-14(-22) pairs, alternate, anadromous, ascending, shortly stalked; basal acroscopic pinnules larger, subdeltoid-lanceolate, ca. 3 cm, base parallel to costa; other pinnules oblong-lanceolate, 1.2-2.5 cm × 8-12 mm, base inequilateral, auriculate on acroscopic side and parallel to costa, narrowly cuneate on basiscopic base, pinnatipartite nearly to costule, apex shortly acuminate; secondary pinnules 4 or 5 pairs, oblong, 5-6 × 2-3 mm, entire or shortly toothed, apex obtuse, connate to each other by narrow costular wing; veins pinnate in secondary pinnule, lateral veins simple. Lamina papery when dried, pale greenish brown, glabrate; rachis, costae, and costules often pale purplish red, with lanceolate or fibrous scales on abaxial surface. Sori elliptic and horseshoe-shaped, rarely J-shaped, medial on acroscopic veins, 1-3 sori per pinnule, often 3 pairs in basal acroscopic pinnule; indusia brown, large, elliptic and horseshoe-shaped, rarely J-shaped, membranous, erose at margin, persistent. Perispore with few folds. 2n = 80.

Mixed forests; 1600-3800 m. Hunan, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [N India, N Myanmar, Nepal].

The epithet was first used in "Aspidium fimbriatum Wallich" (Numer. List, no. 339. 1829, nom. nud.), itself a later homonym of A. fimbriatum Willdenow (1810).