林光蹄盖蕨 lin guang ti gai jue

Rhizomes short, erect, apex with dense broadly lanceolate dark brown scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 25-65 cm; stipe stramineous, 25-30 cm, ca. 2 mm in diam., base densely scaly, upward glabrate; lamina pinnate-pinnatipartite to 2-pinnate, oblong, (15-)30-35 × (5-)15-17 cm at middle, base slightly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae 8-15 pairs, basal pinnae subopposite, upper pinnae alternate, ascending, shortly stalked (stalk 1-2 mm), lanceolate; lower pinnae 2-8 × 1.2-2 cm at base, base rounded-truncate, subequilateral, sometimes slightly auriculate on acroscopic side, pinnate, apex acuminate; pinnules ca. 12 pairs, basal pinnules subopposite, upper pinnules alternate, ascending, sessile, lower pinnules subrhomboid, 8-10 mm (basal acroscopic one larger, 1.2-1.5 cm, pinnatilobate), ca. 4 mm wide at base, base inequilateral, truncate on acroscopic side, narrowly cuneate and decurrent on basiscopic side, margin lobed, dentate, or serrate, apex ca. 2-crenate and obtuse; veins visible abaxially, pinnate in pinnules, lateral veins 7 pairs, oblique, lower veins 2- or 3-forked, upper veins simple. Lamina thinly herbaceous when dried, light greenish brown, glabrate; rachis and costae stramineous, glabrate abaxially, with subulate spines on adaxial side at base of costa or costule. Sori shortly linear or oblong, 3 or 4 pairs per pinnule, costular, biseriate on both sides of costule; indusia brownish, shortly linear or oblong, membranous, entire, persistent. Perispore surface without folds.

● Forests, wet areas; 2700-3300 m. NW Yunnan.

Athyrium decorum looks like A. fangii in frond appearance but differs by the spines on the adaxial surface of rachis, costae, and midribs thick, shortly subulate, not needlelike.