勐海凤尾蕨 meng hai feng wei jue

Pteris monghaiensis Ching; P. quadriaurita Retzius var. subquinata (Wallich ex J. Agardh) Beddome.

Plants 80-90 cm tall. Rhizome not seen. Stipe straw-colored, 50-60 cm × ca. 3 mm, glabrous, grooved adaxially; lamina 2- or 3-pinnatipartite, triangular-ovate in outline, ca. 30 × 20 cm; lateral pinnae 3 pairs, opposite, decumbent, sessile, lanceolate, 15-17 × ca. 3.5 cm, base rounded-cuneate, pectinately pinnate, apex acuminate and lobate; basal pair of pinnae often with a basiscopic pinnule similar to main part of pinna but smaller; segments 30-35 pairs, alternate or subopposite, spreading, 2-3 mm apart, linear and substraight, 15-20 × ca. 3 mm, base enlarged, margin entire, apex obtuse; terminal pinna similar to median lateral pinnae, stalked (ca. 1 cm); costae prominent abaxially, straw-colored, glabrous, grooved adaxially, with soft flat spines along grooves; veins conspicuous on both surfaces, oblique, thick and dense, 2-forked at base, acroscopic vein on segment base, and basiscopic vein arising from rachis, and opposite veins at base oblique up to margin of incision; lamina gray-brown, subleathery when dried, glabrous.

Forests along valleys; ca. 1000 m. S Yunnan (Menghai, Xishuangbanna) [Bhutan, N India, Nepal].