Myriopteris cooperae

Cooper's lip fern, Cooper's Lip Fern

Family: Pteridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cooper's lip fern is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, southern California Coast, and Transverse Ranges in limestone crevices at elevations of 100 to 800 meters. This delicate fern features pale green fronds 6 to 25 centimeters long with intricate 2 to 3-pinnate segments, characterized by dense tan to red-brown scales along its short-creeping rhizome. Growing with slender stems less than 2 millimeters wide, the fern develops finely divided leaflets that are generally 1 to 3 millimeters long and approximately oblong in shape. Its fronds display sparse untangled hairs, both glandular and nonglandular, giving the plant a delicate and intricate appearance. The fern produces tan spores on submarginal sporangia, with segment margins remaining flat and unmodified.

Habitat: Generally in limestone crevices

Elevation: 100-800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, SN, SnFrB, SCoRO, SCo (Slover Mtn, San Bernardino Co.), TR.

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.