Japanese name: キジノオシダ（雉尾羊歯） Scientific name:Plagiogyria japonica var. japonica
[Overview]
An evergreen terrestrial fern found on the moist floor and edges of cedar forests and evergreen broadleaf forests in warm regions.
It is hairless throughout.
The rhizome is thick and ascending, without scales, and the leaves grow in spiral tufts.
The leaves are of two kinds, vegetative leaves and spore-bearing leaves.
The vegetative leaves are 15–50 cm long and about 15 cm wide, once-pinnate, dark green, leathery and glossy.
The pinnae are lanceolate and stalkless, entire except for teeth at the tip, and the terminal pinna is distinct.
The petiole of the vegetative leaf is about 7–30 cm long.
The spore-bearing leaves stand upright, taller than the vegetative leaves; the pinnae are linear with short stalks, and their margins roll toward the underside to cover the sporangium clusters.
[Notes]
The Japanese name compares the shape of the vegetative leaves to a pheasant's tail.
