About Myriopteris parryi (D.C.Eaton) Grusz & Windham
Myriopteris parryi is a small, tufted fern that grows from a short creeping rhizome covered in medium brown scales, most of which have a darker thread-like mid-stripe. Its leaves are typically 6 to 15 centimeters long, rarely reaching 25 centimeters, and 1 to 3 centimeters wide. The leaf blades are oblong-lanceolate, twice pinnate, and densely woolly. The stipe, or leaf stalk, is no more than 1 millimeter wide; it bears bent hairs of varying lengths that are variably appressed to its surface. Leaf segments are small, nearly round, and flat. Tangled hairs roughly 4 millimeters long grow densely on both leaf surfaces: adaxial (upper) leaf hairs are silver to white, while abaxial (lower) leaf hairs are tan to brown or golden. The pale upper leaf hairs are often thick enough to give the plant a distinctly woolly appearance from above. Dark-colored sporangia on the leaf underside may be buried beneath this layer of hairs. Like many other Myriopteris ferns, fronds of this species will curl up to expose their abaxial surface during dry conditions. This fern is native to the Southwestern United States, California, and Baja California, where it grows in rocky crevices in mountains and deserts.
