| English Name | Tumor-footed Fern |
|---|---|
| Status in China | Endangered (EN) |
Description:
Perennial herbs. Rhizome short, erect. Stipes crowded,10-25 cm long, base slightly enlarged, triangular in transverse section. Lamina simply pinnate, dimorphous: sterile lamina oblong, 15-20 cm long and 10 cm wide; pinnae about 20 pairs, apex acute and serrate, base adnate to the rachis wing; the lowest pair somewhat reduced and deflexed; veins forked, prominent on both surfaces; fertile lamina taller than the sterile ones; pinnae much reduced, about 2.5 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, densely covered with sporangia on lower surface.
Distribution:
Ma On Shan, Sunset Peak and Hong Kong Island. Taiwan.
Habitat and Ecology:
On moist places in secondary forests of mountain ridge.
First discovered in shaded crevices in Ma On Shan in 1907, this species is a rare species discontinuously distributed in Hong Kong (type locality) and Taiwan and is thus of special botanical interest. The distribution range of this species is fragmented and its population size is small, but most localities of its occurrence in Hong Kong are protected in Country Parks.
References:
秦仁昌，1959。 中國植物誌2: 104。科學出版社，北京。
Edie, H. H., 1977: Ferns of Hong Kong, 172. Hong Kong Univ. Press, Hong Kong.
Copeland, E. B., 1908: Philippine Journal of Science 3(5): 281.
