脆叶轴果蕨 cui ye zhou guo jue

Athyrium fragile Tardieu (1932), not (Linnaeus) Sprengel (1804).

Rhizome robust, erect, brown, up to 3 cm in diam. (including remaining stipe bases), woody, apex scaly, scales brown, lanceolate. Fertile fronds up to 2.2 m; stipe brown or castaneous-brown at base, upward gradually pale stramineous, up to 1.1 m, up to 7 mm in diam. at base; lamina 3-pinnate with secondary pinnules lobed, deltoid, up to 1.25 × 1 m at base, apex long acuminate; pinnae 9 or 10 pairs, ascending, mostly alternate, with stalk up to 3.5 cm; basal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae narrowly deltoid or narrowly ovate-lanceolate, up to 70 ´ 30 cm, apex caudate, long acuminate; pinnules up to 19 pairs, alternate, stalked (stalk up to 1 cm), ascending, lanceolate, lower pinnules up to 16 ´ 5 cm, pinnatisect, apex caudate, long acuminate and roughly serrate; pinnule lobes up to 10 pairs, ovate, pinnatilobate to pinnatifid, connate to each other with narrow wings, spreading, base asymmetrical, broadly cuneate, acroscopic secondary lobes larger, roughly crenate at apex; secondary pinnule lobes less than 5 pairs, shallowly crenate. Veins visible abaxially, pinnate in pinnule lobe, veinlets forked or simple. Lamina mostly brown, paler abaxially, herbaceous or thinly herbaceous when dry, rachis stramineous, shiny. Sori shortly linear or slightly lunate, single in secondary lobes or 1 or 2 pairs in basal ones, costular; indusia light gray when young, pale brown when mature, shortly linear or lunate. Perispore with mostly broad flakelike folds.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 700-1400 m. Guangxi (Baise), Guizhou (Guiding), Yunnan [Vietnam].