Flora of North America species comparison

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Pellaea breweri

Brewer's cliff-brake, Brewer's cliffbrake fern
Stems

compact, ascending, stout, 5–10 mm diam.;

scales uniformly reddish brown, linear-subulate, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, thin, margins sinuous, nearly entire.
Leaves

monomorphic, clustered on stem, 2.5–20 cm;

croziers sparsely villous.
Petiole

brown, lustrous, rounded adaxially, with prominent articulation lines near base.
Blade

linear-oblong, pinnate-pinnatifid proximally, 1–4 cm wide;

rachis brown proximally, green distally, straight, rounded adaxially, glabrous to sparsely villous.
Ultimate segments

lanceolate-deltate, 5–25 mm, herbaceous, glabrous;

margins recurved on fertile segments, covering less than 1/2 abaxial surface, borders whitish, erose-denticulate;

apex obtuse or rounded.
Pinnae

ascending or perpendicular to rachis, decurrent on rachis, deeply 2-lobed (mitten-shaped) near base of leaf;

costae absent.
Veins

of ultimate segments evident.
Sporangia

sessile or subsessile, containing 64 spores, not intermixed with farina-producing glands.
2n

= 58.

Pellaea breweri
Phenology Sporulating summer–fall.
Habitat Cliffs and rocky slopes, on a variety of substrates including granite and limestone
Elevation 1600–3800 m (5200–12500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pellaea breweri is distinguished from other North American taxa (except for some populations of P. glabella) by the presence of prominent articulation lines near the base of the petiole. The leaves are easily detached, and many herbarium specimens consist of separate leaves and stems, the latter covered with petiole bases of approximately equal length.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Pteridaceae > Pellaea
Sibling taxa
P. andromedifolia, P. atropurpurea, P. brachyptera, P. bridgesii, P. cordifolia, P. gastonyi, P. glabella, P. intermedia, P. lyngholmii, P. mucronata, P. ovata, P. ternifolia, P. truncata, P. wrightiana
Name authority D. C. Eaton: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 555. (1865)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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