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Brewer's cliff-brake

Stems

ascending; stout; much-branched and forming a caudex;

scales dense; long and very narrow, uniformly brown.

Leaves

in more or less dense clumps from multiple apices; small; to about 20 × 4 cm.

Petioles

up to half the leaf length, dark brown and glossy; color and texture extending into proximal part of rachis;

distal rachis tip usually green, prominent annular articulation lines present near the petiole base.

Blades

linear oblong lanceolate, pinnate-pinnatifid;

pinnae twisted out of plane, curved forwards and upwards.

Segments

broad; most deeply divided into 2(3) unequal lobes, acroscopic lobe largest; up to 1.5 × 1 cm, green; leathery, glabrous or glaucous;

apex rounded to acute;

base obtuse, truncate or subcordate;

veins free; visible, shortly petiolate to subsessile.

Sporangia

in submarginal lines along the margins of each lobe, mostly covered by a false indusium; waxy glands and farina absent.

2n

=58.

Pellaea breweri

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Rocky soil and cliffs in the mountains. 1500–3100 m. BR, BW, ECas. CA, ID, NV, WA; most mountain ranges in the western US. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 102
Duncan Thomas
Sibling taxa
P. andromedifolia, P. brachyptera, P. bridgesii
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