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The Prickly shield fern (Arachniodes aristata) belongs to the family Dryopteridaceae. It is an evergreen fern that is distributed from Kanto region of Honshu west to Shikoku, Kyushu, Okinawa in Japan, as well as Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, China, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It grows under forests in the mountains and grows in clusters, reaching a height of 50 to 130 cm. The leaves are dark green, shiny, 20-35 cm long, and have 3-4 pinnate deep fissures. There are 4 to 6 pairs of side pinnae. The fertile fronds are upright and the pinnules are deeply cut. The sori are slightly closer to the middle ribs of the splinter, and the indusia are brown and round kidney-shaped. In Taiwanese Chinese, it is called "細葉複葉耳蕨".
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