English: Lip fern.
Name: from the Greek words cheilos, meaning lip, and anthos, meaning flower.
Genus: 180 species.
Region: cosmopolitan.
Habitat: rock-dwelling; warm, dry, rocky regions, often in small crevices high up on cliffs; desert.
BotanyFerns; small, sturdy; evergreen.
Leaves: densely covered in trichomes; spring directly from the rootstocks; curling up in dry times, reviving with the coming of moisture.
Sporangia: at the ends of veins, or spore-bearing structures, protected by leaf margins, which curl over them.
TaxonomyCheilanthes traditionally is highly paraphyletic, comprising at least four generically separate groups.
The type species, Cheilanthes micropteris, is most closely allied to the genera Aleuritopteris and Sinopteris. In the early 21st century, many species were moved into the new genus Gaga and the revived genus Myriopteris. Further work remains to be done to render Cheilanthes monophyletic.
Cheilanthes sensu stricto contains about 20 species from North and tropical Central and South America.