Finger fern

Japanese: ヒメウラボシ（英語表記）finger fern

A small evergreen fern of the Polypodium family (illustration) that grows on moss-covered tree trunks in the cloud forests near mountaintops where mist is common. The Japanese name means "small polypodium" (the round sporangium on the underside of the leaves looks like stars, hence the name is used to mean "fern"). It grows clumps of linear to linear-lanceolate leaves, 2-8 cm long, on a short rhizome. The leaves are entire or slightly wavy, thick but brittle, and covered with reddish-brown bristles. The veins are simple or bifurcated, and the front short branches bear circular or slightly deformed oval sporangium near the tips.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

霧のよくかかる山頂付近で雲霧林のようにコケのついた樹の幹などにつくヒメウラボシ科の小型の常緑性シダ（イラスト）。小型のウラボシ(葉裏の円い胞子囊群が星のようにみえることからシダの意に使われる)の意でこの和名がつけられた。短い根茎に，線形から線状披針形で，長さ2～8cmの葉を叢生（そうせい）する。葉は全縁か，多少波状縁，葉質は厚いがもろく，全面に赤褐色の剛毛がある。葉脈は単生または二叉（にさ）分枝し，前側の短い枝の先端近くに円形か，少し崩れて楕円形になる胞子囊群をつける。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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