Family

Aspleniaceae

Nomenclature

Asplenium delavayi (Franch.) Copel., Gen. Fil.: 165. 1947; Tagawa & K.Iwats., SouthE. Asian Stud. 5: 83. 1967; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Fl. Thailand 3: 263, f. 21.1. 1985; Boonkerd & Pollawatn, Pterid. Thailand: 140. 2000. – Scolopendrium delavayi Franch., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 32: 29. 1885; Bedd., Suppl. Ferns Brit. Ind.: 41. 1892. – Phyllitis delavayi (Franch.) C.Chr., Index Filic. 492. 1906. – Schaffneria delavayi (Franch.) Tardieu, Natur. Malgache 9: 30. 1957. – Sinephropteris delavayi (Franch.) Mickel, Brittonia 28(3): 327. 1976.

Description

Lithophytic. Rhizome short, erect, densely scaly; scales narrow, up to 2.5 by 0.5 mm, gradually narrowing. from base towards long-acuminate apex, nearly black with brown margin, clathrate. Stipes 5–10 cm long in fertile frond, up to 3.5 cm in sterile one, dark purplish, distinctly polished, grooved on upper surface, softly pubescent or glabrescent. Laminae simple, nearly circular, rounded or rarely very moderately acute at apex, deeply cordate but seldom imbricate at base, up to 5 cm long and broad, sterile ones smaller, margin subentire to moderately crisped, chartaceous, grass-green on upper surface, paler below, glabrous; costa dark brown and polished like stipe only in lower 1/3, the base of veins like stipe and then all the veins hardly visible on both surfaces, once or twice furcate, all free and nearly reaching the margin. Sori elongate along veins, usually from base to near apex; a pair of sori facing each other having their indusia attached laterally by their outer edges.

Distribution in Thailand

NORTH-EASTERN: Loei.

Wider Distribution

SW China, India (Assam), Upper Burma and northern Vietnam.

Ecology

In muddy crevices of calcareous rocks in dense forests at about 900 m alt.

Proposed IUCN Conservation Assessment

Least Concern (LC). This species is widespread outside of Thailand and not under any known threats.