17. Adiantum subpedatum Ching, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin. 3(3): 2. 1983.
昌化铁线蕨 chang hua tie xian jue
Plants terrestrial, 24-28 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, short scales brown, broadly lanceolate. Fronds clustered; stipe blackish, 10-15 cm, ca. 1 mm thick, glabrous; lamina pedately dichotomous, ca. 15 × 11-20 cm; pinnae 2-4(or 5) per branch, 1-imparipinnate, linear-lanceolate in outline, inner pinnae up to 13 × 2 cm, outer pinnae slightly shorter; pinnules ca. 24 pairs per pinna, alternate, spreading, stalked; basal pinnules slightly smaller, flabellate, with longer stalks; middle pinnules oblong, ca. 1 × 0.3-0.4 cm, submembranous, drying green, base cuneate, inner and lower margins straight and entire, upper margin minutely acutely dentate. Veins extending into marginal teeth, visible abaxially. Sori 1 or 2 per pinnule, horizontally attached in shallow sinuses; false indusia grayish green, orbicular or reniform, membranous, persistent.
● On calcareous rocks; ca. 1000 m. Zhejiang.
The possibility that Adiantum subpedatum is a depauperate form of the preceding species, A. myriosorum, merits further investigation.