Cheilanthes eatonii
Cheilanthes parryi
Eaton's lip fern
Parry's lip fern
compact, 4–8 mm diam.;
scales mostly bicolored, with broad, well-defined, dark, central stripe and narrow, light brown margins, linear-lanceolate, straight to slightly contorted, loosely appressed, persistent.
compact to short-creeping, 3–10 mm diam.;
scales often uniformly brown but at least some on each plant with well-defined, dark, central stripe, linear-lanceolate, straight to slightly contorted, loosely appressed, persistent.
clustered, 6–35 cm;
vernation noncircinate.
clustered, 4–20 cm;
vernation circinate.
dark brown, rounded adaxially.
dark brown to black, rounded adaxially.
oblong-lanceolate, 3–4-pinnate at base, 1.5–5 cm wide;
rachis rounded adaxially, with scattered linear-lanceolate scales and monomorphic pubescence.
lanceolate to linear-oblong, usually 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at base, 1–4 cm wide;
rachis rounded adaxially, lacking scales, with dense monomorphic pubescence.
oval to round, beadlike, the largest 1–3 mm, abaxially densely tomentose, adaxially pubescent with fine, unbranched hairs or glabrescent.
oblong to lanceolate, not beadlike, the largest 3–5 mm, abaxially and adaxially densely villous with long, segmented hairs.
not articulate, dark color of stalk continuing into pinna base, basal pair not conspicuously larger than adjacent pair, usually equilateral, appearing tomentose to glabrescent adaxially.
not articulate, dark color of stalk continuing into pinna base, basal pair usually smaller than adjacent pair, ± equilateral, appearing densely villous adaxially.
marginal to obscurely inframarginal, somewhat differentiated, 0.05–0.25 mm wide.
absent.
± continuous around segment margins.
± continuous around segment margins.
containing 32 spores.
containing 64 spores.
green adaxially for most of length;
abaxial scales multiseriate, lanceolate to linear, truncate or subcordate at base, without overlapping basal lobes, conspicuous, the largest 0.4–0.7 mm wide, loosely imbricate, not concealing ultimate segments, erose-dentate, rarely with 1–2 cilia at base on a few scales.
brown adaxially for most of length;
abaxial scales absent.
= 2n = 90, 120, apogamous.
= 60.
Cheilanthes eatonii
Cheilanthes parryi
As here circumscribed, Cheilanthes eatonii is a variable species comprising apogamous triploid and tetraploid cytotypes of unknown parentage. It includes plants previously identified as C. castanea and C. pinkavii (ined.). Type specimens of C. eatonii and C. castanea are quite distinct morphologically, but most plants here included within C. eatonii are intermediate between these two extremes (T. Reeves 1979). Because there is no clear morphologic break, C. castanea is placed here in synonymy under C. eatonii pending further study. Reports of hybridization between C. eatonii and C. villosa (D. B. Lellinger 1985) are based on specimens from western Texas and southern New Mexico that appear to be intermediate between these taxa in several characters. T. Reeves (1979) applied the name C. pinkavii to these specimens; that name has never been validly published. Formal recognition of this taxon is deferred pending completion of a biosystematic study of the C. eatonii complex as a whole.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Many authors assign Cheilanthes parryi to Notholaena, but it is distantly related (at best) to the type species of that genus, and we concur with R. M. Tryon and A. F. Tryon (1982) that it should be tranferred to Cheilanthes. Further support for this generic placement is provided by the fact that C. parryi hybridizes with C. covillei to form the sterile diploid C. × parishii. Cheilanthes parryi is most often confused with C. feei, from which it can be distinquished by its coarser, denser pubescence and larger ultimate segments.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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