Flora of North America species comparison

compact, erect to ascending, with few to many persistent petiole bases of unequal lengths;

scales mostly uniformly brown but at least some bicolored with dark central stripe and pale brown margins, narrowly lanceolate.

4–30 × 1.5–6 cm.

light brown or straw-colored when mature, occasionally darker at very base, not articulate above base, relatively brittle and easily shattered.

linear to lanceolate, usually pinnate-pinnatifid proximally, glabrescent to sparsely glandular, never viscid;

glandular hairs with thin stalks and slightly expanded tips;

rachis with scattered glandular hairs and rare, hairlike scales.

ovate-deltate to elliptic, longer than wide, abruptly tapered to a rounded or broadly acute apex;

largest pinnae with 3–7 pairs of closely spaced pinnules;

abaxial and adaxial surfaces glabrescent to sparsely glandular, lacking nonglandular hairs or scales.

of narrow, filamentous segments, these uniseriate for most of length, composed of ± isodiametric cells, usually surpassing mature sporangia.

averaging 44–52 µm. 2n = 152.

dentate, often shallowly lobed;

margins nonlustrous, thin, with occasional glands, lacking cilia, with 1–2-celled translucent projections on teeth.

tips occasionally enlarged to form whitish hydathodes visible adaxially.