Common Name: BRAKE FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, in soil or on or among rocks; rhizome creeping to erect, scaly. Leaf: generally all +- alike (or of 2 kinds, fertile, sterile), generally < 50 cm, often < 25 cm; stipe generally thin, wiry, often dark, ×-section with vascular strands generally 1--3, less often many in circle; blade generally pinnate or +- palmate-pinnate (see Adiantum), often >= 2-compound, abaxially often with glands, +- powdery exudate, hairs, or scales; segments round, oblong, fan-shaped, or other, veins generally free. Sporangia: in sori or not, marginal, submarginal, or along veins, covered by recurved, often modified segment margins (false indusia) or not; true indusia 0; spores spheric, sides flat or not, scar with 3 radiating branches. Genera In Family: +- 40 genera, 500 species: worldwide, especially dry areas. Note: CA members of Cheilanthes moved to the distantly related Myriopteris; Pellaea breweri to be moved as well, from a to-be-redefined Pellaea; traditional, often untenable limits of genera outside CA also being clarified using molecular phylogenetics. eFlora Treatment Author: Ruth E.B. Kirkpatrick, Alan R. Smith & Thomas Lemieux, except as noted Scientific Editor: Alan R. Smith, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Habit: Plant in soil or rock crevices; rhizome short-creeping-decumbent, scales lance-elongate, generally dark, with narrow, lighter margin or not. Leaf: +- alike or fertile, sterile +- dissimilar; axes grooved, light to dark brown; blade 3--4-pinnate, ovate-triangular to 5-sided, glabrous, adaxially +- glossy; pinnae long, narrow, tip pointed, sterile. Sporangia: in small clusters or continuous along margin; false indusia scarious, irregularly toothed. Etymology: (Greek: shield-bearer, from shield-like false indusia in Aspidotis californica) eFlora Treatment Author: Ruth E.B. Kirkpatrick, Alan R. Smith & Thomas Lemieux
Aspidotis densa (Brack.) Lellinger
NATIVE Leaf: (2)3-pinnate, 15--20(30+) cm, leathery, fertile, sterile +- dissimilar; pinnae pinnately dissected or not, segments linear, +- entire. Sporangia: false indusia continuous along both sides of segment midvein, with many shallow, regular teeth. Chromosomes: 2n=60. Ecology: Slopes, crevices, outcrops, especially serpentine; Elevation: 100--3400 m. Bioregional Distribution: NW, CaR, SN, CW, PR; Distribution Outside California: to southwestern Canada, Montana, Wyoming, Utah; also southeastern Can (Gaspé Peninsula). Synonyms: Onychium densum Brack. Jepson eFlora Author: Ruth E.B. Kirkpatrick, Alan R. Smith & Thomas Lemieux Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Aspidotis carlotta-halliae Next taxon: Astrolepis
Citation for this treatment: Ruth E.B. Kirkpatrick, Alan R. Smith & Thomas Lemieux 2012, Aspidotis densa, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=14506, accessed on February 07, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on February 07, 2025.
Geographic subdivisions for Aspidotis densa:
NW, CaR, SN, CW, PR
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).
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Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).