Flora of North America species comparison

slender, short-creeping, densely scaly;

scales dark reddish brown to chestnut brown.

clustered, 1–6 dm.

pale or brownish, 5–30 cm, scaly proximally, otherwise glabrous.

oblong to oblanceolate, irregularly and pedately divided proximally (as in Pteris cretica) and pinnately divided distally, 10–35 × 13–25 cm;

rachis slightly and evenly winged, wing constricted above each pinna pair.

3–7 pairs, widely spaced, distal pinnae simple, adnate and decurrent to rachis;

pinnae remaining green through winter, not articulate to rachis, lanceolate to linear;

sterile pinnae wider than fertile pinnae (to ca. 1.2 cm), margins irregularly serrate to serrulate;

fertile pinnae mostly less than 5 mm, margins entire to serrate at apex;

adaxial costae with sparse, septate hairs;

proximal pinnae with 1–4 elongate basal segments.

free, simple or forked.

narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially.

= 116.