9. Cheilanthes insignis Ching, Fl. Tsinling. 2: 208. 1974.
厚叶碎米蕨 hou ye sui mi jue
Cheilosoria insignis (Ching) Ching & K. H. Shing.
Rhizomes creeping to ascending, short; scales concolorous or bicolorous, black, sometimes with brown margins, shiny, lanceolate, stiff. Fronds closely spaced. Stipe reddish brown to brown, lustrous, 10-15 cm × ca. 2 mm, grooved adaxially, groove rounded along margins, scaly toward base or smaller fronds with scales sometimes distributed nearly to lamina; scales dark brown, mostly concolorous, lanceolate-subulate to hairlike. Lamina brownish green when dry, broadly lanceolate, 15-17 × 5-6 cm, 3-pinnate, papery, glabrous on both surfaces or with minute stalked glands, mostly adaxially; rachis and costae dark brown, adaxially grooved, with sparse, minute, stalked glands adaxially. Pinnae 9-14 pairs, oblique; second or third pinnae largest, ovate-lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 4-5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, shortly stalked, acroscopic basal pinnule parallel to rachis, basiscopic base cuneate, apex acuminate. Pinnules of basal pinnae slightly inequilateral, basiscopic pinnules slightly longer than adjacent acroscopic ones; basal basiscopic pinnule shorter than adjacent basiscopic ones, oblong to oblong-ovate, lobed, axes narrowly winged. Ultimate segments ovate or oblong, margins shallowly lobed. Sori interrupted at segment sinuses. False indusia discontinuous, margins slightly erose.
● On rocky slopes or under shrubs in dry hot valleys; 1700-3300 m. N Sichuan, E Xizang.