1. Cheilanthes alabamensis (Buckley) Kunze (Alabama
lip fern) Pl. 14g,h; Map 59
Rhizomes
compact to short-creeping, the scales brown, concolorous or slightly darker at
the base, linear-lanceolate. Leaves clustered on the rhizome, 5–25(–50) cm
long. Petioles black, glabrous or with jointed hairs, lacking scales. Leaf
blades 2 times pinnately compound, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate in outline.
Pinnules 2–8 mm long, oblong to narrowly triangular or linear, sometimes deeply
lobed, glabrous or sparsely hairy above and beneath. Sori more or less in a
continuous, marginal band around the pinnules or pinnule lobes, the edge of the
narrow, recurved pinnule margins somewhat differentiated. Sporangia with 32
spores. Spores tan. 2n=87
(apogamous). July–October.
Uncommon
in the southwestern portion of the Ozark Division (Arizona
to Georgia, north to Kansas and Virginia; Mexico).
Crevices of dry limestone and dolomite bluffs and boulders.