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Description: Rhizome short-creeping, densely covered with lanceolate, entire scales.

Fronds crowded, 6–24 cm high, < 3 cm wide; stipe red-brown to black, shiny, densely covered with white or golden-brown scales; lamina narrow-lanceolate, 2-pinnate, upper surface ± densely hairy with long slender branched whitish hairs, lower surface with scales and slender branched whitish hairs; ultimate segments sessile, 2–5 mm long and 2 mm wide, margins lobed or entire.

Sori becoming confluent and continuous around the margins of the segments.

Habit Photo J. Plaza

Herbarium Sheet

Distribution and occurrence: Occurs across much of Australia, and New South Wales, but is rare, or absent from the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range in our state.

On rocky outcrops and hills in inland arid regions.
NSW subdivisions: NWS, CWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP
Other Australian states: Qld Vic. W.A. S.A. N.T.

AVH map***

One of the distinctive characters of Cheilanthes lasiophylla is the long, branched hairs, which occur on the upper and lower suface of the lamina, and on the stipe and rachis. Establishing whether or not the hairs branch is challenging, because they are often close-set, overlapping, and refract light, all of which obscure hair form. Definitive assessment of hair morphology and branching may, sometimes, only be possible when the hairs have been removed and slide mounted for examination on a compound microscope. In any event, the hairs should always be removed for inspection. Placing a clump of removed hairs in a few drops of water, and stirring them around or smearing them gently on a surface may sufficiently isolate individual hairs such that their form can be ascertained with a decent hand lens.