湖南复叶耳蕨 hu nan fu ye er jue

Rhizome creeping, succulent at growing apex, ca. 3 cm in diam., densely scaly; scales reddish brown, linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, ca. 8 × 0.5-2 mm, thin and soft. Fronds remote, 0.7-1.1 cm; stipe stramineous, 40-60 cm, ca. 4 mm in diam., base scaly as rhizome, upward glabrescent; lamina 2(or 3)-pinnate-pinnatifid, lustrous pale green when dried, elliptic or ovate-oblong, 35-50 × 20-25 cm, herbaceous, base cuneate, apex abruptly narrowed and forming an acute terminal pinna, rachis glabrescent; lateral pinnae 4-6(-8) pairs, alternate, with to 1.5 cm stalk, obliquely spreading; lowest pinnae (linear-lanceolate or) lanceolate, 15-18 × 4-4.5 cm, base broadly cuneate, apex acuminate; primary pinnules 15-18 pairs, shortly stalked, spreading, oblong-rhombic, ca. 3.2 × 1.5 cm, base acroscopically truncate and auriculate, basiscopically cuneate, apex acute, margin deeply pinnatifid (with proximal 1 or 2 pairs of lobes free), basal basiscopic primary pinnules occasionally longer and pinnate; ultimate segments with apex acute, margin serrate with cuspidate (or mucronate) teeth; axes and veins of ultimate segments with scattered minute brown threadlike scales abaxially. Sori large, terminal on veinlets, 1-3(-7) pairs per ultimate segment, closer to margin than to midvein; indusia dark brown, firmly membranous, and entire (or ciliate).

● By streams in dense forests in valleys; ca. 800 m. Hunan (Daoxian, Lingxian).

Arachniodes hunanensis is similar in frond size and shape to A. ×subamabilis Sa. Kurata, which has been accepted as the name of this species by some authors. However, with limited specimens and without cytological evidence, it cannot be sure whether this is conspecific with the Japanese fern.