Deparia japonica (Thunb.) M. Kato

Black lady fern

Etymology Japonica means Japanese.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping, branching, scaly.
Frond: deciduous, somewhat dimorphic, the fertile ones taller, narrower, more erect, blade/stipe ratio: .
Stipe: green or straw-clored, shallowly grooved above, swollen or not at base, densely scaly at base, upwards along with rachises scaly and multicellular-hairs, vascular bundles: 2, lunate.
Blade: 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, oblong-lanceolate, gradually narrowed toward acuminate apex, sometimes slightly narrowed toward base, herbaceous, multi-cellular hairs along costae, rachis.
Pinnae: 12 to 16 pair, linear to linear-lanceolate, to 12 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, halfway or deeply pinnatifid; costae grooved above, discontinuous with the rachis; margins serrate or lobed, blunt or acute at the tip; veins free.
Sori: elongate, ± straight, or hooked at distal end, to 5 mm long, on veins, arranged generally in a herringbone pattern, indusium: linear, persistent, sinus, brown, sporangia: brownish.
Culture Habitat: woodland, lowlands, foothills. Distribution: Himalayas, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, eastern Siberia. Hardy to -20°C, USDA Zone 6, but given the range, provenance is important.
Synonyms
Asplenium japonicum Thunb
Athyriopsis japonica (Thunb.) Ching
Athyrium japonicum (Thunb.) Copeland
Diplazium japonicum (Thunb.) Bedd.
Deparia japonica
Deparia japonica.  Photo: Otto Ganss
Notes
Compare to D. petersonii is similar, prevalent in tropical Asia, Australia; perhaps some of the distribution reported here is that species.
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