21. Deparia medogensis (Ching & S. K. Wu) Z. R. Wang
[comb. nov.]
墨脱对囊蕨 mo tuo dui nang jue
Rhizomes erect or ascending, moderately stout, bearing remaining stipe bases, up to 5-6 cm in diam., scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales large, red-brown or brown, ovate-lanceolate, up to 15 × 3-4 mm, membranous. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 70-130 cm; stipe stramineous, sometimes slightly chestnut-colored, 10-30 cm, 3-5 mm in diam., base densely scaly, upward scales gradually sparse; lamina pinnate-pinnatipartite, oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate, 48-85 × 12-26 cm at middle, gradually narrowed toward base, apex pinnatifid and shortly acuminate; pinnae 20-25 pairs, lower 5-7 pairs of pinnae gradually shortened toward base, subopposite, upward alternate, spreading or slightly ascending; basal pinnae auriculiform, ca. 1 cm, ca. 4 cm apart; middle pinnae narrowly lanceolate, 7-16 × 1.2-2 cm, base subtruncate or broadly cuneate, broadest (up to 2.5 cm), pinnatipartite almost to costae, apex acuminate or long acuminate; segments of middle pinnae more than 15-25 pairs, spreading, oblong, base broadened, adnate to narrow wing, separated by narrow space, prominently toothed at margin, apex obtuse-rounded or obtuse. Veins slightly visible on both surfaces, pinnate in segments, 5-7 pairs, simple, oblique. Lamina herbaceous when dried, rachis, costae, and veins with sparse thin, short multicellular hairs abaxially, with sparse red-brown short thick hairs adaxially. Sori oblong or shortly linear, occasionally J-shaped or horseshoe-shaped on basal acroscopic side of distal segments of lamina or pinnae, 1-2 mm, 3-6 pairs per segment, approximate; indusia similar to sori, brownish, erose at margin or subciliate, persistent. Spores bilateral, perispore surface with few low folds.
● Broad-leaved, mixed, and coniferous forests; 2500-4000 m. SE Xizang, Yunnan.
Deparia medogensis is very similar to plants called Lunathyrium allantodioides (Beddome) Ching (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 9: 72. 1964; Athyrium allantodioides Beddome, Ferns Brit. India, t. 221. 1867 (Type K!); Deparia allantodioides (Beddome) Kato) from N India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Taiwan. The chromosome number reports from India were diploid or tetraploid, 2n = 80 or 160. But the spores of the type specimens in K are unequal in size, rounded, black, abortive, which shows it should be a hybrid, Lunathyrium ×allantodioides (Z. R. Wang, Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 3(2): 308. 1999). The relationship between them needs further study.
