(3) Woolly Lip Fern. Cheilánthes Tomentòsa
Fronds eight to eighteen inches long, lanceolate-oblong, tripinnate. Pinnæ and pinnules ovate-oblong, densely woolly especially beneath, with slender, whitish, obscurely jointed hairs. Of the ultimate segments the terminal one is twice as long as the others. Pinnules distant, the reflexed, narrow margin forming a continuous, membranous indusium. Stipe stout, dark brown, densely woolly.
By donning its thick coat of wool this species is prepared to grow in the most exposed situations of the arid southwest. It is said to be the “rarest, tallest and handsomest of the lip ferns.”
Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky to Georgia, and west to Missouri, Texas and Arizona.