栗柄岩蕨 li bing yan jue

Plants 4-10 cm tall. Rhizomes ascending or prostrate, scaly; scales dark brown, lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, membranous, margin entire or sparsely dentate. Fronds subclustered; stipe castaneous, 2-5 cm, fragile, lower part covered with scales and articulate hairs, upper part and rachis densely covered with articulate knee-jointlike long hairs, hairs later fallen; lamina imparipinnate, elliptic-lanceolate, 3-6 × 1-2.5 cm, thinly herbaceous, abaxially with articulate hairs along veins and margin, adaxially glabrous; pinnae 5 or 6 pairs, opposite, spreading, sessile, ovate or elliptic, 8-12 × 5-9 mm, margin entire or slightly undulate, apex rounded. Veins visible, pinnate, veinlets not reaching laminar margin. Sori large, orbicular, located at bifurcations of lateral veins or on acroscopic veinlets; indusia absent or composed of ciliate, platelike, small lobes, hidden. 2n = 328.

Crevices in granite rocks and schist cliffs; 2900-4600 m. Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India (Sikkim), Nepal].