4. Cheilanthes tomentosa Link (woolly lip fern) Pl. 13g,h,i; Map 62

Rhizomes compact, the scales with a dark brown central stripe and lighter margins, linear-lanceolate. Leaves clustered, 8–30(–45) cm long. Petioles dark brown, densely hirsute-tomentose with jointed hairs mixed with linear scales, the pubescence sometimes wearing away in patches at maturity. Leaf blades 3 times pinnately compound, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate in outline. Pinnules 1–3 mm long, oblong to obovate or nearly orbicular, beadlike, sometimes lobed, hirsute above, densely tomentose beneath, the undersurface midribs sometimes also with hairlike scales. Sori more or less in a continuous, marginal band around the pinnules, the edge of the recurved pinnule margins somewhat differentiated. Sporangia with 32 spores. Spores dark brown. 2n=90 (apogamous). June–September.

Uncommon in the southwestern portion of the Ozark Division (Arizona to Georgia, north to Kansas and Pennsylvania; Mexico). Crevices of dry limestone and dolomite bluffs and boulders.