膜质鳞盖蕨 mo zhi lin gai jue

Plants terrestrial. Rhizome slender, long and creeping, 5-6 mm in diam., with dense, long, dark brown hairs. Fronds distant; stipe gray-brown, columnar, 40-50 cm, 3-4 mm in diam., scabrous when hairs fall; lamina green when dried, 3-pinnate, oblong in outline, 45-60 × 25-30 cm, thinly herbaceous, semitransparent, both surfaces and along veins glabrous or sparsely hairy; pinnae 12-15 pairs, alternate or subopposite, compact, 6-8 cm apart, spreading, shortly stalked; basal pinnae largest, 2-pinnate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 15-20 × 8-12 cm, slightly narrowed at base, asymmetrical, basiscopically cuneate, acroscopically truncate and parallel to rachis, ± covering rachis, apex acuminate; pinnules 12-15 pairs, alternate, adjacent, lanceolate to triangular-lanceolate, 5-6 × ca. 2 cm, base asymmetrical, basal pinnules shorter, at 90° to rachis, pinnate, apex acuminate; ultimate pinnules 5-8 pairs, pinnatifid, oblong in outline, 10-20 × 5-8 mm, base cuneate, decurrent, acroscopic margin serrate, perpendicular to small rachillae, apex rounded and serrate. Veins pinnate, with club-shaped hydathodes at tip of veinlets. Sori orbicular, small; indusium semicircular, small, membranous, glabrous.

● Near streams in dense forests; 300-500 m. Guangdong, Hunan.