Argyrochosma limitanea

Argyrochosma limitanea
Fronds of southwestern false cloak fern growing from a rocky niche

Apparently Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Polypodiales
Family: Pteridaceae
Genus: Argyrochosma
Species:
A. limitanea
Binomial name
Argyrochosma limitanea
(Maxon) Windham
Subspecies
  • Argyrochosma limitanea subsp. limitanea
  • Argyrochosma limitanea subsp. mexicana (Maxon) Windham
Synonyms
  • Cheilanthes limitanea (Maxon) Mickel
  • Hemionitis limitanea (Maxon) Christenh.
  • Notholaena limitanea Maxon
  • Pellaea limitanea (Maxon) C.V.Morton

Argyrochosma limitanea, the southwestern false cloak fern, is a species of fern native to the southwestern United States and Sonora, Mexico. It grows on calcareous rocks, and has small, finely-divided leaves with a leathery texture, dark axes connecting the leaf segments, and a heavy coating of white powder on the undersurface. It reproduces apogamously; two subspecies are recognized, which may have originated independently through the hybridization of other taxa not yet discovered. First described as a species in 1919, it was transferred to the new genus Argyrochosma in 1987.