疏羽叉蕨 shu yu cha jue

Tectaria viridifrons Ching & Chu H. Wang ["virififrons"].

Plants terrestrial, 80-90 cm tall. Rhizome erect, thick, ca. 2 cm in diam., dilated and bluntly spiny, scaly on apex and stipe bases; scales dark brown, lanceolate, ca. 6 mm, subleathery, margins entire, apices long acuminate. Fronds clustered, stipe stramineous, up to 50 cm, obviously dilated and spiny at base, grooved above. Lamina 3-pinnatifid, 2-pinnatifid upward, light brown when dried, deltoid-ovate, 40-50 × 25-30 cm, thinly papery, base slightly cordate, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 4 pairs, opposite, interval up to 8-9 cm; rachises stramineous, glabrous on both surfaces, hairy on adaxial side of costae and midribs of pinnules, glabrous abaxially; basal pinnae largest, asymmetrically deltoid, ca. 20 × 15 cm, bases rounded-cuneate, apices acuminate, long stalked (up to 3 cm), shortly stalked upward, bipinnate to tripinnatifid, with 1 or 2 pairs of separate pinnules at base; middle pinnae broadly lanceolate, 12-15 × 5-7 cm, bases cuneate, apices acuminate, pinnatipartite to broadly winged along costa; pinnules of basal pinnae ca. 8 pairs, opposite at base, alternate toward apex, interval 1-2 cm, shortly stalked at base, sessile or adnate to costa upward, basal basiscopic pinnules larger, broadly lanceolate, 10-12 × 4-5 cm; lobes ca. 10 pairs, slightly oblique upward, interval 2-3 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, 1.5-2 × ca. 1.2 cm. Veins copiously anastomosing to hexagonal areoles, included veinlets simple if present inconspicuous and hairy adaxially and slightly raised and glabrescent abaxially, margins ciliate. Sori orbicular, terminal on included veinlets, in 1 row at each side of midrib of ultimate lobes; indusia brown, clypeate, membranous, entire, persistent. 2n = 80*.

● Along wet streams; ca. 1700 m. Yunnan (Jingdong, Wuliang Shan).

Tectaria remotipinna is similar to T. coadunata but can be easily differentiated by the blunt spines on its rhizome.