Rhizome-scales brown, concolorous, 2-5 mm; lvs tufted, evergreen, 7-15 cm, the slender petiole 3-9 cm, reddish-brown, glabrous; blades monomorphic, deltoid pentagonal, tripinnate or tripinnate-pinnatifid, to 5 נ4 cm, the rachis glabrous; pinnae opposite, petiolulate, deltoid-ovate, ca 4 pairs, the lowest the largest, the upper smaller and simple, sessile or adnate; ultimate segments spatulate (terminal flabellate), sessile, 2-3.5 mm, cuneate at base, often crenate at the apex, pruinose above, copiously white-powdery beneath, the margin only slightly recurved and scarcely modified; sporangia large, mostly solitary; 2n=54. Calcareous cliffs; Mo. and Nebr. to Okla. and c. Tex. (Cheilanthes d.; Pellaea d.)

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

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