贡山粉背蕨 gong shan fen bei jue

Plants 20-30 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, short; scales concolorous, black or dark brown, lanceolate, ca. 0.5 × 6 mm. Fronds clustered. Stipe ebeneous, lustrous, 10-18 cm × 1-1.5 mm, scaly at base, scales similar to those of rhizome. Lamina ovate-deltoid, 8-13 × 4.5-8.5 cm, pinnate-bipinnatifid, papery or somewhat leathery, abaxially with white farina, adaxially glabrous, apex caudate; rachises similar to stipes, grooved adaxially; pinnae 5-8 pairs, usually opposite or sometimes alternate, oblique, sessile, basal pinnae largest, deltoid, strongly inequilateral, 4-7 × 4-5 cm, bipinnatifid; pinnules 4-7 pairs, alternate; acroscopic pinnules much smaller, usually simple, ca. 8 × 3 mm, broadly adnate to costa, apex obtuse; basal basiscopic pinnules largest, oblong, ca. 4 × 1.5 cm, pinnatifid; ultimate segments 4 or 5 pairs, oblong to ovate, middle ones to 1.5 × 0.3 cm; second pinnae 1.5-4 cm, apart from basal ones, similar but smaller; upper pairs gradually shortened distally. Sori consisting of several sporangia, confluent at maturity. False indusia narrow, membranous, continuous, with denticulate margins.

● Under thickets in dry hot valleys; 1000-1700 m. C and NW Yunnan.

Aleuritopteris gongshanensis is similar to A. veitchii in its concolorous rhizome scales but differs in its ovate-deltoid fronds with white farina abaxially, false indusia margins distinctly lacerate, and spores with a reticulate-cristate perine.