拉钦耳蕨 la qin er jue

Aspidium lachenense Hooker, Sp. Fil. 4: 8. 1862; Polystichum sinkiangense Ching ex Chang Y. Yang; P. xinjiangense Ching ex Chang Y. Yang.

Plants summer-green. Rhizome erect, densely covered with broadly lanceolate brown scales. Fronds 6-14 cm; stipe stramineous, 2-6 cm, slender, ca. 0.5 mm in diam. at base, lower part persistent, covered with brown, linear and narrowly lanceolate scales. Lamina 1-pinnate, linear, 5-14 cm × 8-16 mm, contracted at base, acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, both surfaces glabrous, or only with few scales; scales light brown, narrowly lanceolate. Pinnae 12-15 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis or slightly ascendant, sparsely arranged, sessile or shortly stalked, ovate, middle pairs 5-8 × 3-4 mm, bases broadly cuneate or rounded-cuneate, sometimes acroscopic bases slightly auriculate, margins with small acute teeth or pinnatilobate, apices rounded or rarely acute; both surfaces glabrous or with few microscales; microscales light brown, narrowly lanceolate; frond texture papery; venation pinnate on pinnules, lateral veins dichotomous, indistinct on both surfaces. Sori often on upper pinnae only, in 1 row on each side of midrib; indusia present, toothed.

Alpine meadows, rock crevices or foot of rocks; 3200-4500 m. Gansu, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N and NW India, Japan, Kashmir, Nepal].

A hybrid, Polystichum ×gemmilachenense Miyamoto & T. Nakamura (J. Jap. Bot. 58: 149. 1983), possibly between P. lachenense and P. stenophyllum, was described from Taizhong, Taiwan.