中型叉蕨 zhong xing cha jue

Plants terrestrial, ca. 60 cm tall. Rhizome ascending or erect, short, densely scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales linear-lanceolate, 3-4 mm, thickly membranous, margins entire, apices acuminate. Fronds clustered; stipe dark brown to castaneous, glossy, 35-40 cm, 3-4 mm in diam. at base, grooved above, sparsely pubescent at base. Lamina bipinnatifid at base, pinnate upward, light brown when dried, deltoid, ca. 30 × 25 cm; terminal pinna trifurcate, ovate-deltoid, ca. 18 × 5-6 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, base rounded, margins lobed, apex acuminate; rachises castaneous, pubescent adaxially, glabrescent abaxially; costae castaneous at base, stramineous upward, densely hairy adaxially, glabrescent abaxially; terminal lobe ovate-lanceolate, lobed, basal lateral lobes longer, ca. 8 cm, falcate-lanceolate, opposite; lateral pinnae 2 pairs, opposite, slightly oblique, interval 2-3 cm, stalks ca. 2 cm, lateral pinnae subsessile upward; basal pinnae largest, deltoid, pinnatifid, ca. 18 × 12 cm, bases cordate, apices long acuminate, lobes falcate-lanceolate, undulate to slightly lobed; middle pinnae broadly falcate-lanceolate, ca. 15 × 3.5 cm, bases cuneate, margins undulate to slightly lobed, apices acuminate. Veinlets forming subhexagonal areoles with cross veins, raised on both surfaces, included veinlets simple or forked. Sori small, orbicular, located at coupling veinlets, in irregular rows between adjacent lateral veins; indusia small, brown, membranous, persistent.

● Dense forests; ca. 700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan.