Myriopteris lendigera is a species of cheilanthoid fern with the common name nit-bearing lip fern.
Description
Leaf bases are widely spaced along the long-creeping rhizome, which is about 3 millimeters (0.1 in) in diameter. The rhizome bears scales, which are linear-lanceolate and of a uniform tan to orange color when young. As they age, the whole scale may become dark brown, or part of it may darken somewhat more than the rest. They are straight or slightly twisted and loosely pressed against the rhizome, and are generally not lost with age.
The fronds are from 5 to 45 centimeters (2.0 to 18 in) long, 1.5 to 12 centimeters (0.59 to 4.7 in) broad, and spaced out along the rhizome. The stipe (the stalk of the leaf, below the blade) is from 4 to 25 centimeters (1.6 to 9.8 in) long, representing from three-fifths to one-half of the total frond length. The upper surface of the stipe is rounded, and it is a shiny, dark-chestnut brown to dark purple in color. It may be hairless, or have a few to many soft, white to orange hairlike scales from 1.5 to 3.5 millimeters (0.059 to 0.14 in) long and long twisted hairs up to 5 millimeters (0.2 in) long.
The blade is deltate or ovate-deltate to oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate in shape. The blade is usually quadripinnate (cut into pinnae, pinnules, pinnulets, and divisions of pinnulets) at the base, sometimes with pinnulets only lobed. The blade narrows slightly or not at all at the base, and narrows gradually at the apex, becoming merely pinnatifid (pinnately lobed). Each blade is cut into 10 to 20 pairs of pinnae. The rachis (leaf axis) is chestnut-brown to dark purple in color, rounded like the stipe, or slightly flattened above, and covered with a few to many hairlike scales and hairs similar to those of the stipe. The pinnae are equilateral or nearly so, narrowly deltate in shape, and borne on short stalks. There is no joint at their base and the dark color of the stalks...
