Notholaena nealleyi

Stem scales mostly bicolored, margins black, broad and poorly defined, thick, ciliate-denticulate. Leaves 5--15 cm. Petiole black to dark brown, much shorter than blade, rounded adaxially, sparsely glandular farinose, bearing needlelike, multicelled hairs and ciliate scales. Blade lanceolate, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, 3--6 times longer than wide, abaxially with conspicuous whitish farina and shiny, dark brown, needlelike hairs scattered along rachises and costae, adaxially distinctly glandular; basal pinnae equal to or slightly smaller than adjacent pair, ± equilateral, proximal basiscopic pinnules not greatly enlarged. Ultimate segments sessile to subsessile, narrowly adnate to costae; segment margins slightly recurved, rarely concealing sporangia. Sporangia containing 64 spores.

Sporulating summer--fall. Calcareous cliffs and ledges, usually on limestone; 200--1700 m; Tex.; Mexico.

Notholaena nealleyi often has been treated as a variety of the Mexican species N . schaffneri (Fournier) L. Underwood ex Davenport, but recent studies (Windham, unpublished data) suggest that it may represent an allotetraploid hybrid between diploid N . schaffneri and another, as yet unidentified, species. Results of these studies, combined with morphologic differences and geographic isolation, favor the recognition of N . nealleyi as a distinct species.

Common Name: Nealley's cloak fern Etymology: Notholaena is from the Greek nothos, false, and chlaina, a cloak, a reference to the incomplete indusium, Synonyms: Cheilanthes nealleyi, Notholaena schaffneri var. nealleyi