1. Athyriaceae
2. Diplazium
3. Diplazium nigrosquamosum

Basionym: Allantodia nigrosquamosa Ching, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 36: 380. 1998.

Plants evergreen, medium-sized. Rhizome slender, creeping, densely scaly; scales on rhizome and lower part of stipe ca. 6 mm, brown, membranous, translucent, lanceolate, entire; fronds distant. Fertile fronds ca. 60 cm; stipe gray-stramineous, ca. 25 cm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., upper half of stipe and lower part of rachis with many black, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, entire, thick scales; lamina 1-pinnate, broadly lanceolate, ca. 38 × 12 cm at base, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 15 pairs, ascending, sickle-shaped lanceolate, shallowly lobed, lobes shallowly serrate; lower pinnae subopposite, 4-4.5 cm apart, 6-7 × ca. 1.5 cm, base asymmetrical, cuneate basiscopically, truncate acroscopically, auriculate, with stalk ca. 3 mm, apex long acuminate; upper pinnae alternate, sessile, costae (except basal part) narrowly winged; veins pinnate, prominent on both sides, thin, slightly raised, veinlets 5 per veinlet group, ascending, anadromous. Lamina thinly herbaceous when dry, green, glabrous on both surfaces, rachis (especially lower part) with many scales. Sori linear, slightly falcate, ca. 5 mm, medial, single or occasionally double; indusia light brown, linear, membranous, entire, persistent.

Beside streamlets; ca. 1100 m. NE Yunnan (Suijiang).

Diplazium nigrosquamosum is similar to D. wichurae in the auriculate pinnae but differs by the stipe and rachis abaxially with dense black lanceolate scales, lamina thinly herbaceous, and lower pinnae 4-4.5 cm apart.