Cheilanthes lanosa (Michaux) D. C. Eaton

Hairy lip fern

Etymology Lanosa means woolly.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping, scales brown, linear-lanceolate.
Frond: 40 cm high by 5 cm wide, deciduous, can go dormant in dry spells, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1 to 3:1.
Stipe: chestnut brown, rounded above, the color extending into the rachis and costae, many arching hairs, a lens helps, vascular bundles: 1.
Blade: 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at the base, less above, lanceolate, papery, gray-green above, white-waxy below, reddish hairs, linear, segmented, sparse above, wooly below.
Pinnae: 12 to 14 pair, opposite at base, sub-opposite to alternate above, isodromous throughout, lanceolate; pinnules 4-6, opposite, per pinna, pinnate at the bottom of the blade, pinnatifid above; segments segment margins inrolled; margins serrate; veins free, obscure.
Sori: linear, discontinuous, submarginal, indusium: false, continuous along the margin, sporangia: black, maturity: summer to fall.
Culture Habitat: rocky granitic slopes and ledges. Distribution: United State: Kansas to Connecticut, south to the Gulf Coast. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Nephrodium lanosum Michaux
Cheilanthes vestita (Sprengel) Swartz
Cheilanthes lanosa
Cheilanthes lanosa. Frond and lower surface of fertile pinnule.  Illustration by Edgar Paulton, from How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies, John T. Mickel, © 1979 Wm. C. Brown Co.
Cheilanthes lanosa
Cheilanthes lanosa.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Cheilanthes lanosa
Cheilanthes lanosa. Stipe has one vascular bundle, a lens required to make this out.  Scan: Tom Stuart
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