贞丰蹄盖蕨 zhen feng ti gai jue

Rhizomes short, stout, erect, clothed with brown, lanceolate scales at apex and stipe bases. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 20-25 cm; stipe brown at base, upward brown-stramineous, 6-10 cm, 1-1.5 mm in diam. at base, upward with sparse small scales and brownish short glandular hairs; lamina pinnate, lanceolate, 14-17 × 3-4 cm at middle, base not narrowed, apex acuminate, slightly caudate; pinnae 13-15 pairs, alternate, ascending, with stalk 1-1.5 mm, basal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae falcate-oblong, similar to upper pinnae; middle pinnae 2-2.5 cm × 6-8 mm, apex shortly acute and shortly toothed, base markedly inequilateral, auriculate on acroscopic side, parallel to rachis, auricles 6-7 × ca. 3 mm, basiscopic side of pinnae cuneate, cut into triangular teeth at margin, apex rounded and with few small teeth. Veins visible adaxially, clearly visible abaxially, pinnate or 2- or 3-forked on auricles or segments, simple. Lamina papery when dried, glabrate, brown adaxially, yellow-green abaxially; rachis brown-stramineous, with sparse brownish small scales and short glandular hairs. Sori suborbicular, inframedial on acroscopic veins, 1-3 sori per segment, often 2 or 3 pairs in auriculate lobes; indusia dark brown, J-shaped or horseshoe-shaped, membranous, erose at margin, persistent. Perispore surface with prominent folds.

● Valley forests; 1500-1600 m. SW Guizhou (Zhenfeng).

Athyrium zhenfengense is very similar to A. nakanoi but differs by the pinnae acute at apex, auriculate lobes with small teeth at apex, and short glandular hairs on rachis brown, not blackish or dark brown.