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.

decumbent to erect, much branched from base, stout, 10–20 mm diam. (including hardened, persistent leaf bases);

scales bicolored, dense, broadly lanceolate to linear, to 7 × 2 mm.

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.

densely tufted, green over winter, persistent;

fertile leaves erect, 5–25 cm;

sterile leaves spreading, 3–17 cm;

hairs small, appressed, cylindric, scattered along grooves of petioles and along costae and costules of adaxial blade surface.

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

dark brown only on proximal 1/8 or less, green to straw-colored distally, 1–2 mm wide, firm and strawlike, not collapsed;

scales bicolored or ± concolored, becoming sparse distally.

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

hydathodes superficial, often poorly developed or absent.

deltate to ovate-lanceolate, somewhat leathery, opaque;

sterile blades dimorphic, 2–3-pinnate or 3–4-pinnate, hydathodes only slightly sunken below leaf surface.

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.

of less dissected sterile leaves ovate-lanceolate, regularly dentate to incised with 8–16 teeth or lobes;

segments of more finely dissected sterile leaves pinnatifid with 4–8 small, obovate lobes, lobe apices acute;

segments of fertile leaves ascending, strongly differentiated, linear, 3–10 × 1–3 mm;

margins of fertile segments revolute, covering sporangia.

often in discrete sori.

in sori that coalesce at maturity.

= 60.