Cheilanthes

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Pteridaceae

• Scientific Name

  Cheilanthes

• Description

  Genus Description - Lvs glabrous or more often evidently hairy or scaly, evergreen, uniform; petiole slender and wiry, dark and shining; lvs 2–4 times pinnate, the ultimate segments small, with clavate-tipped free veins; sori borne on the vein-ends just within the margins of the pinnules, often confluent, the point of attachment covered by the reflexed margins, which form a ± continuous, unmodified or partly scarious false indusium, but the mature sporangia often conspicuously exserted; small, ± xeromorphic rock-ferns, the rhizome beset with slender, brown to blackish scales. 100+, widespread, mostly New World.

• Common Names

  lip-fern