碎米蕨 sui mi jue

Cheilanthes mysurensis Wallich ex Hooker; Cheilosoria mysurensis (Wallich ex Hooker) Ching & K. H. Shing.

Rhizomes erect, short; scales mostly bicolorous and dark brown to black with narrow orangish brown margins, narrowly lanceolate. Fronds tufted. Stipe dark brown to black, 2-7 cm, densely scaly proximally, sparsely scaly distally; scales concolorous, reddish brown, lanceolate or subulate-lanceolate, adaxially grooved, groove with a pair of narrow winglike ridges along margins, these glabrous, occasionally with few minute teeth. Lamina brown when dry, elongate lanceolate to narrowly oblong-elliptic, 8-18(-23) × 1-2 cm, bipinnate, rarely bipinnate-pinnatifid, herbaceous, glabrous on both surfaces, base gradually tapered, apex acuminate. Pinnae 10-20 pairs, relatively closely spaced; medial pinnae deltoid or deltoid-lanceolate, 1-1.5 × 0.5-0.8 cm, subsessile; lower pinnae widely separated and gradually shortened proximally, oblong to narrowly deltoid; basal pair of pinnae often reduced to small auricles, equilateral or nearly so. Pinnules of medial pinnae usually divided into 3 or 4 pairs of orbicular lobes. Sori 1 or 2 per lobe, discrete. False indusia discontinuous, reniform or somewhat elliptic-reniform, margins otherwise entire or slightly irregular. 2n = 60.

On rocks on stream banks or under shrubs; 100-300 m. Fujian, Guangdong (Dapu), Hainan, Taiwan [India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam].

Cheilanthes opposita is easily confused with the closely related C. chusana, and some botanists combine the two taxa under the latter name.