Cheilanthes Swartz (Pteridaceae) Earlier placement: Adiantaceae, Cheilanthaceae, Sinopteridaceae, Parkeriaceae

Lip fern

Etymology Greek: From cheilos, lip + anthos, flower. A lip-like false indusium covers the sporangia.
Description Rhizome: erect to long-creeping, scales brown to black or often bicolored with dark central stripe.
Frond: evergreen, monomorphic.
Stipe: brown to black or straw-colored, rounded, flattened, or with single longitudinal groove above, hairy, scaly, or glabrous, vascular bundles: 1.
Blade: pinnate-pinnatifid to 4-pinnate at base, leathery or rarely somewhat herbaceous, finely hairy and/or scaly below, finely hairy or glabrous above.
segments entire, stalked or sessile, fertile segment margins slightly enrolled to cover sporangia, veins free.
Sori: sporangia, submarginal, indusium: false, sporangia: brown to black or gray.
Cheilanthes
Cheilanthes lanosa.  Photo: Tom Stuart
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