9. Leptochilus ellipticus (Thunberg) Nooteboom, Blumea. 42: 283. 1997.
线蕨 xian jue
Rhizome slender, long creeping, 2-10 mm in diam., somewhat flattened; scales dark brown, ovate-lanceolate, 1.1-7.6 × 0.6-2.3 mm, margin sparsely denticulate, apex acuminate. Fronds subdimorphic, distant; stipe stramineous, 6.5-48 cm; rachis usually winged, to 3.2 cm wide; lamina pinnate to deeply pinnatifid, oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate in outline, 17-70 × 8-22(-50) cm, herbaceous to papery, dark brown, glabrous, base narrowly cuneate and decurrent, margin entire to distinctly undulate-repand; lobes 3-14 pairs, linear to narrowly lanceolate or elliptic, 4.5-24 × 0.9-3.8 cm, apex long acuminate; fertile fronds usually with longer stipes, narrower pinnae or lobes, papery; lateral veins often rather crooked and ill defined, forming 2 or 3 irregularly arranged areoles, free included veinlets often forked. Sori linear, sometimes interrupted, one between each pair of lateral veins. 2n = 72.
Forests, on slopes or rocks, sometimes wet; 100-2500 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].
Colysis elliptica (Thunberg) Ching f. furcans (Tutcher) Ching (Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol. 4(10): 335. 1933; Gymnogramma elliptica (Thunberg) Baker var. furcans Tutcher, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 37: 69. 1904; Polypodium ellipticum Thunberg var. furcans (Tutcher) Ching; P. pothifolium Mettenius var. furcans (Tutcher) Ching) is based on a form of Leptochilus ellipticus with serrate basal pinnae and deeply divided distal pinnae.
