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The Stewart's wood fern (Dryopteris stewartii) belongs to the family Dryopteridaceae. It is a semi-evergreen fern that is distributed from Afghanistan to western Nepal. It grows in high-altitude forests and is about 1 m tall. The leaves are bipinnate compound, green or dark green, slightly glossy, and slightly leathery to herbaceous. There are 20 to 22 pairs of pinnae. The leaf stalk base has dark brown scales. The sorus is circular and attached to both sides of the midrib of the pinnule, and the indisum is kidney-shaped and brown. The specific epithet is named after Dr. Ralph Landles Stewart (1890-1993), an American-born botanist who spent many years researching and teaching about plants in Pakistan.
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