川西耳蕨 chuan xi er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect or ascending, short, densely covered with linear brown scales. Fronds 50-80 cm; stipe yellowish brown, 16-40 cm, 3-4 mm in diam. at base, densely covered with linear, lanceolate and larger scales; large scales bicolorous, dark brown at middle, shiny, ovate and ovate-lanceolate, up to 15 × 7 mm, irregularly toothed or ciliate, caudate or obtuse. Lamina bipinnate, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 44-62 cm, middle part 17-21 cm wide, base slightly contracted, lower part fertile, apex acuminate, fertile; rachis without proliferous bulbils, abaxially covered with linear, lanceolate brown scales and larger scales; large scales ovate-lanceolate and broadly lanceolate, up to 8 × 2.3 mm, margins ciliate, apices caudate. Pinnae 20-26 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis, shortly stalked, lanceolate, bases not contracted, nearly asymmetrical, apices acuminate; middle pinnae 10-14 × 2.4-2.6 cm, 1-pinnate; costa abaxially covered with linear and subulate brown scales. Pinnules 15-19 pairs, alternate, shortly stalked, deltoid-ovate, 1.2-1.8 × 0.5-0.7 cm, bases cuneate, with rounded auricles acroscopically, apices acute, margins shallowly toothed and often incised, teeth aristate at tip; basal acroscopic pinnules largest, pinnatipartite to midrib; adaxially sparsely and abaxially densely covered with long-filiform microscales; frond texture papery; venation pinnate, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, dichotomous, distinct. Sori brown, 5-8 pairs per pinnule, in 1 row on each side of midrib, close to midrib, terminal on veinlets; indusia present, entire.

● Forests in valleys, wet places; 1600-2600 m. Sichuan (Baoxing, Tianquan).

Polystichum huae was named in honor of Dr. Shiu Ying Hu, collector of the type (S. Y. Hu 1158), who died in 2012 at 102 years of age and is remembered for her lifelong dedication to Chinese botany.

Polystichum huae is similar to P. longiaristatum, but its indusia are entire.