虎克耳蕨 hu ke er jue

Lastrea hookeriana C. Presl, Tent. Pterid. 77. 1836, based on Aspidium caducum Wallich ex Hooker & Greville (1831), not Kunth (1815); Cyrtomium caducum T. Moore; C. hookerianum (C. Presl) C. Christensen; C. integripinnum (Hayata) Copeland; Phanerophlebia hookeriana (C. Presl) Copeland; Phanerophlebiopsis hookeriana (C. Presl) Fraser-Jenkins; Polystichum integripinnum Hayata.

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, sparsely covered with lanceolate brown scales. Fronds 50-100 cm; stipe stramineous, 25-54 cm, 4-5 mm in diam. at base, scaly when young, gradually glabrous when mature; scales blackish brown at middle, ovate and lanceolate, gradually glabrous when mature. Lamina 1-pinnate, ovate-lanceolate, 42-78 × 12-20 cm, contracted at base, acuminate; rachis sparsely covered with lanceolate brown scales. Pinnae 15-20 pairs, alternate, slightly ascendant, shortly stalked, lanceolate, middle pinnae 8-13 × 1-2 cm, bases cuneate and asymmetrical but less strongly than following three species (Polystichum balansae, P. trapezoideum, and P. uniseriale), margins entire, sometimes slightly repand and distal margins near apex serrulate, apices acuminate and sometimes caudate; adaxially glabrous, abaxially with few lanceolate brown microscales; frond texture leathery; venation pinnate but with a marginal connecting vein, slightly raised abaxially, indistinct adaxially, veinlets anastomosing to form 1 or 2 rows of areoles. Sori 1-3 rows on each side of midrib; indusia present, entire.

Forests; 600-2500 m. Guangxi (Longsheng), Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang (Mêdog), Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Nepal, N Vietnam].

Polystichum hookerianum is variable morphologically and may be divided into several taxa. The Japanese species should be called P. tachiroanum (Luerssen) Tagawa.

Polystichum hookerianum is a sexual species.