FERN FAMILY 



25 



14. CHEILANTHES Swartz, Syn. Fil. 126. 1806. 



Mostly small, rock-loving, xerophilous ferns, with glandular-pubescent, tomentose, 

 paleaceous, or (rarely) ceraceous or naked foliage. Fronds uniform, the blades 1-4-pinnate, 

 or 1-pinnate and variously pinnatifid, the segments commonly minute, often beadlike. Sori 

 borne at the enlarged tips of the veins, solitary on minute lobules, or numerous and narrowly 

 confluent. Indusia formed of the revolute or recurved, often thinnish, more or less modified 

 margin of the lobes or segments, or in several species the margin closely reflexed and pouch- 

 like or coherent, giving rise abruptly to a membranaceous, introrse proper indusium. [Name 

 Greek, alluding to the marginal sori.] 



About 125 species of temperate and tropical regions. Fourteen species besides the following occur in the 

 United States. Type species, Cheilanthcs microptciis Swartz. 



Blades glabrous and naked; indusia intramarginal, joined continuously to the closely reflexed margin through- 

 out (the sori contiguous) or to minute saccate teeth at either side of separate sori. 



Sori solitary, with separate short, roundish-lunate indusia. 1. C. calif ornica. 



Sori contiguous, with a common narrowly linear indusium. 2. C. siliquosa. 



Blades variously paleaceous, tomentose, or hairy; indusia marginal, formed of the nearly unchanged, recurved 

 or reflexed tip or border of the lobes or segments. 



Sori 1 or 2 to each lobe, the indusia separate; segments flattish. 



Fronds minutely viscid-glandular. 3. C. visctda. 



Fronds beset with spreading whitish septate hairs. 4. C. cooperae. 



Sori several or many to each lobe or segment, with a common indusium; segments beadlike. 



Blades wholly devoid of scales. 5. C. feci. 



Blades paleaceous, as well as villous or tomentose. 



Segments hairy above. 



Blades thinly tomentulose above, delicately fibrillose-paleaceous and laxly tomentose beneath. 



6. C. fibrillosa. 



Blades coarsely villous on both surfaces, the rachises bearing also a few lax elongate scales 



beneath. 7. C. farishii. 



Segments devoid of hairs above. 



Blades usually 2-pinnate; segments mostly oblong, densely tomentose beneath. 



8. C. gracilliina. 



Blades 3-4-pinnate; segments mostly roundish to oval, imbricate-paleaceous beneath. 



Fronds many, close; segments irregularly roundish or oval, fertile distally, the lightly 

 crenate margins deeply recurved. 

 Segments devoid of scales above; scales beneath large, much exceeding the seg- 

 ments, whitish to light castaneous. 9. C. coviUei. 

 Segments with a few minute pale stellate scales above; scales beneath smaller, 

 more numerous, darker, many reduced to entangled cilia. 10. C. intcrtexta. 

 Fronds few, 5-10 mm. apart, larger; segments mostly subcordate-orbicular, fertile nearly 

 to the base, the subentire margin closely revolute. 11. C. clevelandii. 



1. Cheilanthes calif ornica (Hook.) Mett. 



California Lace- fern. Fig. 47. 



Hypolepis calif ornica Hook. Sp. Fil. 2: 71. pi. SS. A. 1852. 

 Cheilanthes californica Mett. Abh. Senckenb. Ges. Frankfurt 3: 88. 

 Cheilanthes amoena A. A. Eaton, Fern Bull. 5: 44. 1897. 



1859. 



Rhizome short-creeping, thickish ; scales acicular, 2-2.5 mm. long, 

 rigid, dark castane.ous, with pale narrow borders. Fronds numer- 

 ous, 6-37 cm. long; stipes 4-28 cm. long, nearly naked, dull castane- 

 ous. subflexuous; blades broadly deltoid-ovate or pentagonal (the 

 basal pinnae large, inequilateral, deltoid), 2.5-15 cm. long, 2-12 cm. 

 broad, sub-quadripinnate, the minor rachises greenish-marginate 

 above; segments oblique, linear to elliptic or lance-ovate, decurrent, 

 acute to long-mucronate, callous ; sori solitary at the transversely 

 enlarged vein-tips, the ample pale indusium loundish-lunate, adherent 

 to a slender saccate marginal tooth at either side; leaf tissue 

 herbaceous, bright green, glabrous. 



Base of cliffs. Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones: chiefly in the coast 



ranges, Humboldt County to San Diego County, California, and sparingly in 



the Sierra Nevada from Butte County southward. Type locality: Santa 

 Barbara, California. 



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