沙皮蕨 sha pi jue

Acrostichum harlandii Hooker, Sp. Fil. 5: 274. 1864; Anapausia bonii (Christ) Nakai; A. harlandii (Hooker) Nakai; Gymnopteris bonii Christ; G. decurrens Hooker; Hemigramma decurrens (Hooker) Copeland; H. distinctipetiolata Ching; Leptochilus bonii (Christ) C. Christensen; L. harlandii (Hooker) C. Christensen; L. kanashiroi Hayata; Polypodium hainanense C. Christensen.

Plants terrestrial, 30-70 cm tall. Rhizome ascending to creeping, short, 1.5-2 cm in diam., roots lignified, densely scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales brown, glossy, linear-lanceolate, up to 1 cm, membranous, margins densely ciliate, apices long acuminate. Fronds clustered, dimorphic; sterile fronds in rosettes in juvenile stage, stipe dark stramineous or brown to castaneous, slightly glossy, 10-25 cm, 3-4 mm in diam. at base, glabrous, grooved above, narrowly winged toward apex. Lamina simple, trifoliate, or odd-pinnate, dark green when dried, ovate, 20-35 × 20-25 cm, thickly papery, both surfaces glabrous, base decurrent or not, apex acuminate; rachises and costae dark stramineous, slightly grooved above, glabrous on both sides; terminal pinna larger, broadly lanceolate, ca. 20 × 5-6 cm, subsessile or with a stalk up to 1 cm, base cuneate and decurrent, apex long acuminate, entire to undulate; lateral pinnae 1-3 pairs, opposite, interval 5-6 cm, slightly oblique, subsessile, lanceolate, 15-20 × 3-4 cm, bases cuneate and decurrent and forming narrow wings, margin entire or slightly undulate, apices long acuminate. Fertile fronds elongate and narrow; stipe up to 40 cm, glabrous; lamina narrow, trifoliate or odd-pinnate, pinnae linear-lanceolate, 8-10 × ca. 2 mm, sessile, entire or undulate. Veins anastomosing forming copious areoles, included veinlets forked, raised on both sides, glabrous. Sori orbicular, anastomosing in line along areoles, throughout abaxial surface when mature, exindusiate.

On wet moss-covered rocks in forests or along streams; 100-700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Vietnam].

Tectaria harlandii is commonly segregated into the genus Hemigramma because of its dimorphic leaves with contracted fertile fronds and linear sori that cover the entire abaxial surface of the blade when mature. Molecular evidence has shown however that this species is part of a greater Tectaria clade and cannot be maintained in a separate genus. The characters separating Hemigramma from Tectaria are minor and are known to occur in other species of Tectaria in other parts of the world.

Polypodium dimorphum Baker (Ann. Bot. 5: 477. 1891, not Link (1833), described from Hainan) probably belongs here as the isotype sheet in BM was so annotated by Ching.