密果耳蕨 mi guo er jue

Aspidium aculeatum (Linnaeus) Swartz var. pycnopterum Christ, Bull. Herb. Boissier 7: 14. 1899.

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, densely scaly; scales castaneous, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, up to 2 cm × 5 mm, thick in texture, margins membranous, entire, brown. Fronds subdimorphic, fertile fronds slightly smaller, 65-90 cm; stipe stramineous or greenish stramineous, up to 40 cm, ca. 4 mm in diam. at base, base densely covered with large, medium-sized, and small scales; large scales castaneous, ovate or narrowly ovate, up to 2 × 1 cm, thick or partly thick in texture, membranous part brown, entire, only apical part slightly serrulate, acute; medium scales brown, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, up to 2 cm × less than 1 mm, membranous, serrulate; small scales light brown, subulate, bases broadly rounded, long fimbriate, nearly appressed; distal stipe scales similar, but castaneous scales sparser and smaller, often lanceolate. Lamina bipinnate, green or yellowish green when dry, broadly lanceolate, up to 30-55 × 15-25 cm, base not or slightly contracted, apex abruptly contracted, acuminate; rachis stramineous, often with 1 proliferous bulbil near rachis tip, bulbil densely covered with brown scales; rachis densely covered with small scales abaxially as well as similar brownish membranous subulate scales on stipe; small scales castaneous or brown, lanceolate, margins fimbriate or only sparsely serrulate. Lateral pinnate pinnae 15-20 pairs, lanceolate or falcate-lanceolate, often slightly ascendant, sometimes basal pairs slightly reflexed toward base; pinnae of sterile fronds larger, up to 18 × 3 cm; pinnae of fertile fronds up to 10 × 2 cm, shortly stalked, acroscopic margins parallel with rachis, basiscopic margins often angled at less than 90° with pinna rachis, acuminate or long acuminate, often curved upward; apical pairs of pinnae obliquely ovate, not pinnatifid or with pinnatipartite base, apex acute. Pinnules up to 20 pairs, attached at nearly right angles to rachis, ovate-lanceolate or obliquely ovate, apex acute; acroscopic bases auriculate, auricles acute, basiscopic margins broadly oblique or curved, margins acutely toothed, sometimes shallowly pinnatilobate; basal acroscopic pinnules often larger, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite, auricle lobes nearly rhombic; frond texture thinly leathery; veins of pinnules bipinnate, distinct abaxially, slightly visible adaxially, adaxial midrib obviously concave; veinlets angled strongly acroscopically, free. Sori medial, abaxial on veinlets, coenosori and fully covering abaxial surface of fertile pinnules when mature; indusia membranous, entire, brown when mature, centers slightly concave, often persistent. Spores semi-orbicular in equatorial view; perispore sculpturing plicate to lamellate.

● Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 1500-2600 m. SE Yunnan.