Davallia pulchra D. Don, 1825
Description
Rhizome without the scales 2-6 mm in diametre, not white waxy (D. pulchra Rhizome). Scales brown (often greyish), without pale border, broad, ovate to oblong-subdeltoid with round to acute apex, appressed to rhizome, usually crisped, margins recurved, not bearing multiseptate hairs, lacking marginal setae or teeth or those rare, basifixed with cordate base and much overlapping lobes, 2-5 mm long. Stipes pale, adaxially grooved, 10-20 cm long, glabrous or with few scales (sometimes with more scales). Lamina compound (D. pulchra Habitus), tripinnate or quadripinnate, deltoid and broadest towards base, to elongate, often narrowing towards base, glabrous, 12-50 cm long by 7-40 cm broad, not or slightly dimorphous. Longest petiolules 3-20 mm long. Pinnae deltoid or linear-triangular. Longest pinnae 5-21 cm long by 3-12 cm broad. Pinnules of at least the larger pinnae anadromous, linear oblong or narrowly ovate. Longest pinnules 25-70 mm long by 10-35 mm broad. Ultimate leaflets linear oblong, lobed almost to the midrib (each lobe bilobed again). Ultimate segments or lobes obtuse or acute without a tooth, 0.5-3 mm long by 0.6-1 mm broad. Leaf axes glabrous. Veins in sterile ultimate lobes frequently simple, not reaching the margin. False veins not present. Sori separate, frequently single on a segment at the forking point of veins or at the bending point of a vein. Indusium reniform or semicircular, attached at the narrow, cordate base only, wider than long, 0.5-0.8 mm long by 0.5-1 mm broad (D. pulchra SEM1, picture of indusia).
Distribution
Continental Asia: Common from Sri Lanka through India, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan; Southern China (Szechuan 12 coll., Kweichow 9 coll., Yunnan many coll., Tibet 5 coll.); Burma (Chin Hills 3 coll., Mt. Popa 1 coll., Montaban 1 coll.); Northern Thailand (many coll.); Laos (1 coll.); Northern Vietnam (many coll.).
Ecology
Epiphytic and epilithic on granite and limestone. Altitude 450-3500 m.