Flora of North America species comparison

creeping, few branched, slender, 1–1.5 mm diam., succulent, brittle;

scales colorless, sparse, transparent-reticulate, ovate, 0.4 × 0.3 mm;

stems shriveling in 2d year following emergence of leaves.

scattered along stems, ephemeral (dying by late summer), soon shed;

sterile leaves erect, 3–15 cm;

fertile leaves erect, 5–20 cm;

petioles, costae, and costules glabrous.

dark brown in proximal 1/2 or less, becoming greenish distally, ca. 1 mm wide when dry, only slightly furrowed, glabrous.

broadly lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, all pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, herbaceous to membranous, thin;

hydathodes superficial, often poorly developed or absent.

of sterile leaves ovate-lanceolate to fan-shaped, distal 1/2–1/3 shallowly lobed;

segments of fertile leaves horizontal to ascending, often only partially differentiated from sterile leaves, lanceolate to linear, 8–25 × 2–4 mm;

margins reflexed, forming continuous false indusia.

often in discrete sori.

= 60.