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Cheilanthes
Also called Lip Ferns, Lip Fern, Cloak Ferns
Cheilanthes is a genus of about 180 small, sturdy, evergreen rock ferns that grow in warm, dry, rocky places, often in crevices on cliffs. The commonly grown members are desert-adapted species that curl up in dry spells and revive after moisture returns, so they need excellent drainage and sharp dryness between waterings.
Cheilanthes, commonly known as lip ferns, is a genus of about 180 species of rock-dwelling ferns with a cosmopolitan distribution in warm, dry, rocky regions, often growing in small crevices high up on cliffs. Most are small, sturdy and evergreen. The leaves, often densely covered in trichomes, spring directly from the rootstocks. Many of them are desert ferns, curling up during dry times and reviving with the coming of moisture. At the ends of veins sporangia, or spore-bearing structures, are protected by leaf margins, which curl over them.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cheilanthes by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
