针叶蕨 zhen ye jue

Vaginularia trichoidea Fée, Mém. Foug. 3: 34. 1852.

Small grasslike plants, fronds filiform. Rhizome less than 1 mm thick, creeping, stipes ca. 1 mm apart. Scales brown, subulate-lanceolate, ca. 0.5 mm, clathrate. Fronds clustered; lamina filiform, 5-12 cm, ca. 0.5 mm wide at sterile part; costa throughout, with 1 or 2 lateral veins. Sori 1 or 2 per frond, on lateral veins, covered by costa and outer side of raised lateral vein; paraphyses without a head, many. Spores trilete, surface ornamentation obscure.

Epilithic on shaded wet rocks in dense forests in valleys; 700-1400 m. Hainan, ?Taiwan [Indonesia (Sumatra), Malaysia, Philippines, S Thailand].

Reviewer Ralf Knapp notes that the present status for Taiwan is unconfirmed (see also Knapp, Ferns Fern Allies Taiwan, 467. 2011).