Etymology Lepidocaulon comes from lepida, graceful or elegant + the Greek kaulon, a stem.

Description Rhizome: erect, short, bearing several fronds in a whorl, scales ovate to lanceolate, often more than 1 cm long, soft-textured, brownish.
Frond: 60 cm high by 15 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic or weakly dimorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: grooved, straw-colored, darker at base, curving near its junction with the rachis, densely scaly, vascular bundles: 4 or more, in an arc.
Blade: 1-pinnate, lanceolate, the rachis sometimes extending beyond the blade and rooting, leathery, dull gray-green, smaller and irregularly margined scales on pinnae underneath.
Pinnae: 10 to 12 pair, eared upwards, falcate (curved upwards) to 8 cm x 2 cm; margins entire or dentate ; veins free, forked, or rarely netting.
Sori: round, 1-3 rows at each side of costae, on the sides of veins (unusual in the genus), indusium: peltate, small, shed early, central, sporangia: yellow or brownish to black.
Dimensionality: stipe curved so that the blade is held mainly horizontal.

Culture Habitat: among rocks or in mountain forests, often along seacoast. Distribution: Japan, Korea, eastern China. Hardy to -15�C, USDA Zone 7.

Distinctive Characteristics almost horizontal blade, gray-green or pewter-like color

Synonyms
Aspidium lepidocaulon Hook.
Cyrtomidictyum lepidocaulon (Hook.) Ching