柔弱方杆蕨 rou ruo fang gan jue

Plants ca. 1.5 m tall. Rhizomes creeping, thick, ca. 1.5 cm, dark brown, woody and hard. Fronds approximate; stipes ca. 80 cm, dark brown, distally deep stramineous and glabrous; laminae broadly lanceolate, ca. 62 × 38 cm, pinnatifid-acuminate at apices; proximal pinnae nearly not shortened, pinnate-pinnatifid; free pinnae ca. 31 pairs, opposite, spreading, sessile; middle pinnae lanceolate, ca. 20 × 2.5 cm, pinnatifid and subcuneate at bases, pinnatifid and long acuminate at apices; segments ca. 31 pairs, lanceolate, ca. 12 × 4-4.5 mm, entire, acute at apices; proximal pair extremely elongated to 2 cm. Veins visible on both sides, costae raised abaxially, adaxially impressed, 15-17 pairs of veinlets per segment, proximal pair arising from base of costules and all reaching bottom of sinuses. Laminae dark brown when dry, abaxially with acicular hairs along rachises, costae, veins, and intercostal areas, adaxially with dense short setae only along costae and elsewhere glabrous. Sori orbicular and attached at bases of veinlets and close to costules; indusia small, bearing hairs. Sporangia glabrous.

● Broad-leaved forests; 800-900 m. Sichuan (Emei Shan).