Flora of North America species comparison

creeping, not cordlike, internodes long, 0.5–1 cm, with persistent petiole bases, covered with tan to golden hairs, especially toward apex;

scales tan to light brown, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, radial walls thin, luminae tan, mostly crowded at stem apex.

seasonally dimorphic, clustered 1 to several cm beyond persistent old petiole bases, especially in late spring and early summer, to 45 cm, bearing sori (earliest leaves smaller, sterile, coarsely divided, margins with rounded teeth; subsequent leaves larger, fertile, more finely divided, margins with sharply pointed teeth).

mostly green to straw-colored throughout, shorter than or nearly equaling blade, base sparsely scaly.

ovate to elliptic, 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, widest at or just below middle, apex broadly acute;

rachis and costae lacking gland-tipped hairs or bulblets;

axils of pinnae lacking multicellular, gland-tipped hairs.

usually perpendicular to rachis, not curving toward blade apex, margins dentate to serrate;

proximal pinnae pinnatifid to pinnate-pinnatifid, ± equilateral, basiscopic pinnules not enlarged, basal basiscopic pinnules stalked, base truncate to obtuse;

distal pinnae deltate to ovate.

mostly directed into teeth.

ovate to cup-shaped, lacking gland-tipped hairs.

spiny, usually 28–34 µm. 2n = 84.