亮叶耳蕨 liang ye er jue

Aspidium lanceolatum Baker, Gard. Chron. n.s., 14: 494. 1880; Polystichum neoliui D. S. Jiang; P. parvulum Christ.

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, short, 3-5 mm in diam. including stipe bases, rhizome apex scaly; scales dark brown, ovate, sparsely toothed, acuminate. Fronds 4-10 cm; stipe light brownish stramineous, sometimes light greenish stramineous, 3-10 mm, less than 0.5 mm in diam., sparsely scaly; scales similar to rhizome scales. Lamina shiny adaxially, linear-lanceolate, 4-9 × 0.5-1.2 wide, base not or slightly contracted, 1-pinnate, apex pinnatifid and shortly acuminate or nearly obtuse; rachis light brownish stramineous, sometimes light greenish stramineous, without proliferous bulbils, abaxially sparsely scaly; scales brown, ovate, with a few long teeth, caudate and long acuminate. Pinnae 15-20 pairs, alternate or nearly opposite, attached at right angles to rachis or slightly ascendant, approximate or imbricate, shortly stalked, deltoid to oblong, apex truncate, with 1-3 short hard spinules, bases asymmetrical, acroscopic base wider, with weakly developed auricles, apex of auricles aristate-spinulose or acute, sometimes nearly obtuse, proximal margins of auricles nearly truncate, parallel to rachis, margins of auricles with 1 or 2 teeth, tips of teeth aristate-spinulose or with short hard spinules, basiscopic margins narrowly cuneate, truncate, entire; both surfaces concolorous, often light brownish green when dry, sometimes slightly grayish green, adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely covered with light brown short microscales; frond texture leathery; venation pinnate, sparse, slightly visible on both surfaces, lateral veins simple or dichotomous, nearly reaching tips of teeth. Sori small, terminal on shorter veinlets, 1-3 above midrib, submarginal, none or rarely 1 below midrib; indusia present, dark brown, entire, evanescent.

● Limestone crevices in wet valleys; 900-1800 m. Guizhou, ?Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan (Emei Shan).

Polystichum nanum Christ (Bull. Acad. Int. Géogr. Bot. 16: 238. 1906) is often treated as a synonym of P. lanceolatum (e.g., FRPS 5(2): 134. 2001), but it might be a different species judging from the morphology of its type material (China. Guizhou: Pin-fa (Guiding Xian), 10 Nov 1904, P. Julien Cavalerie 1945 (lectotype, designated here, NY! [barcode 00128158]; isolectotypes, BM! [barcode 001048650], S-P! [barcode 16336]). However, a detailed type locality is not given in the protologue; thus, any field observations and a molecular analysis of P. nanum are not possible unless it can be refound.