高山珠蕨 gao shan zhu jue

Cryptogramma crispa (Linnaeus) R. Brown ex Hooker var. brunoniana (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Hooker & Baker; C. crispa f. indica Hooker; C. emeiensis Ching & K. H. Shing; C. shensiensis Ching; Phorolobus brunonianus (Wallich ex Hooker & Greville) Fée.

Rhizomes stout and erect; scales brown, lanceolate, membranous. Fronds tufted; stipe straw-colored, sparsely scaly proximally, stipe of sterile frond 4-5 cm, that of fertile frond 7-16 cm. Sterile fronds: lamina broadly ovate or ovate-deltoid, 3-4 × 1.5-4 cm, 3- or 4-pinnate, herbaceous; hydathodes spindle-shaped, slightly sunken below frond surface on dried specimens. Fertile fronds: lamina ovate or ovate-oblong, 4-8 × 1.5-3.5 cm, finely 3-pinnate to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid. Sterile pinnae 6 or 7 pairs, basal pair largest, ovate, 1.6-2.2 × 1.2-1.7 cm. Ultimate sterile segments deltoid or oblong, apex acute, one veinlet in each segment. Ultimate fertile segments linear at first, elliptic when mature, 3-5 × 1-2 mm, apex obtuse, or sometimes acute. Sori borne near vein tips, somewhat rounded, confluent and spreading over abaxial surface of fertile lamina at maturity. False indusia brown, linear, margins entire.

Rock crevices; 3300-3700 m. Sichuan, Taiwan, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Japan, Nepal].

Cryptogramma brunoniana has been treated as a variety of C. crispa (Linnaeus) R. Brown ex Hooker from Europe and Asia, but an analysis of chloroplast and nuclear DNA variation shows that the two species are only distantly related (Metzgar, unpubl. data).