厚壁蕨 hou bi jue

Meringium denticulatum (Swartz) Copeland.

Plants 3-5 cm tall. Rhizome long creeping, brown, very slender, ca. 0.2 mm in diam., sparsely hairy or subglabrous, with sparse brown hairy rootlets. Stipe brown, 0.5-1.5 cm, slender, sparsely hairy, narrowly winged, edges of wings somewhat toothed. Lamina bipinnate to tripinnatifid, subdeltoid-ovate or oblong, 2-4 × 1.5-2 cm; pinnae 4-6 pairs, closely spaced, alternate, sessile, ovate or oblong, 0.5-1 cm × 3-7 mm, base unequally cuneate, apex obtuse, with 3-7 segments; ultimate segments 1.5-3 × 0.6-0.9 mm, with a single veinlet, decurrent at base to form wings of axes, margin sharply toothed, apex obtuse; wings of rachis and costae (sometimes ultimate segments also) toothed and crisped to varying degrees. Veins dichotomous, dark brown, glabrous; cell walls rather thick, coarsely pitted. Sori apical on short acroscopic segments, usually near rachis in upper part of frond; involucres obconic, tubular with bilabiate mouth, with accessory wings, lips serrate, rounded to moderately acute.

On moss-covered tree trunks or wet rocks in dense dark forests, usually along streams; 400-900 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, N, S, and SE Taiwan [N India, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Malesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Pacific islands (Fiji)].