Wright's lip fern

Stems long-creeping, 1--3 mm diam.; scales uniformly brown or slightly darker at base, linear-lanceolate, straight to slightly contorted, loosely appressed, often deciduous on older portions of stem. Leaves clustered to somewhat scattered, 4--25 cm; vernation circinate. Petiole brown, grooved adaxially. Blade lanceolate to ovate-deltate, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at base, 1--4 cm wide; rachis grooved adaxially, not scaly or pubescent. Pinnae not articulate, dark color of stalk continuing into pinna base, basal pair often slightly larger than adjacent pair, ± equilateral, appearing glabrous adaxially. Costae green adaxially for most of length; abaxial scales absent. Ultimate segments oblong to linear, not beadlike, the largest 3--7 mm, abaxially and adaxially glabrous. False indusia marginal, slightly differentiated, 0.05--0.25 mm wide. Sori discontinuous, concentrated on interrupted lateral lobes. Sporangia containing 64 spores. 2 n = 60.

Sporulating summer--fall. Rocky slopes and ledges usually on igneous substrates; 300--2000 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; n Mexico.

The glabrous Cheilanthes wrightii is occasionally confused with C . alabamensis and certain species of Pellaea . Cheilanthes wrightii is easily separated from C . alabamensis by its glabrous rachis, which is grooved on the adaxial surface. It is distinguished from all local members of Pellaea by having both a grooved rachis and a thin, long-creeping stem.