拟鳞瓦韦 ni lin wa wei

Pleopeltis suboligolepidus (Ching) Tagawa & K. Iwatsuki.

Plants 15-28 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, to 10 cm, 1.8-2.5 mm in diam., densely scaly; scales brown, sometimes with paler margins, lanceolate, 2.5-5 × up to 1 mm, margins serrate, center opaque, marginal 1 or 2 rows of cells transparent or not. Fronds closely spaced; stipe straw-colored, 1.5-2(-3) cm, 1-1.5 mm in diam.; lamina grayish yellow when dried, lanceolate, 15-28 × 1.5-2.5 cm, normally widest 1/3 from base, distal 1/3 abruptly attenuate, ± hard and leathery, both surfaces subglabrous, or abaxial surface occasionally sparsely scaly, scales lanceolate or suborbicular, transparent, lamina base attenuate, decurrent, apex long acuminate; costa robust, raised on both sides, veinlets faintly visible. Sori usually along distal part of lamina, midway between costa and margins or nearer costa, orbicular, 2.5-3 mm in diam.; paraphyses brown, orbicular, nearly polygonal in shape, 0.4-0.6 mm in diam., center thick and dark. Spores verrucose.

On tree trunks or rocks on forested slopes; 1000-3200 m. Guizhou (Luodian, Taijing), Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [N India].

Lepisorus suboligolepidus can be distinguished from L. oligolepidus by the sparser leaf scales, the lamina usually widest 1/3 from base, and the sori relatively small, not close to each other. This species is also close to L. tibeticus; however, the lamina of L. suboligolepidus is broadly lanceolate, not lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, and the rhizome scales linear-lanceolate, thick, with the transparent marginal lumina much larger.