Dryopteris fuscipes C. Chr.
Etymology Fuscipes = dark-footed, Latin, refering to the brown scales at the stipe base.
Description Rhizome: erect, massive, bearing several fronds in a tuft.
Frond: 100 cm high by 25 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 3:2.
Stipe: grooved, scales brown to reddish-brown, mostly confined to the stipe base, 1.5 cm long in basal ones, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate, triangular, herbaceous to somewhat leathery, early deciduous, dark, hair-like scales.
Pinnae: 12 to 15 pair, lanceolate, subopposite above the base; pinnules oblong, less than 2.5 cm; costae bullate scales; margins entire to crenate; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, in 1 row between midrib and margin, indusium: reniform, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.
Culture Habitat: on forest floor in lowlands. Distribution: Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Hardy to -15°C, USDA Zone 7.
Synonyms
Dryopteris bipinnata C. Chr.
Nephrodium fuscipes Hand.-Mazz.
Dryopteris fuscipes
Dryopteris fuscipes.  Illustration from The Cultivated Species of the Fern Genus Dryopteris in the United States, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki and Kenneth A. Wilson, American Fern Journal, 89, 1, (1999), with permission.
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