Montane to alpine. Rocks. Summer.
Top and left: Vallecito Creek Trail, September 13, 2010.
Immediately above: Bridal Veil Falls, Telluride, August 18, 2016.

This shining circumboreal Fern is found in few locations in the Four Corners area.  Its usual habitat is rocky crevices (as pictured here) or scree slopes, but it is sometimes found in Coniferous woods. 

Narrow and long (to two feet) fronds have numerous pinnae (leaflets), with the longest pinnae usually at or above the middle of the leaves. 

Each pinnae is conspicuously spinulose (tipped with minute spines). 

From collections made in Europe, this plant was first described and named Polypodium lonchitis by Linnaeus in 1753.  Albrecht Roth renamed it Polystichum lonchitis in 1799.

Greek gives us both "polystichum" "many rows" for the many rows of sori and "lonchitis", "spear" for the shape of the leaf.

The second photograph above shows a plant that is a record for San Miguel County, Colorado.

Montane to alpine. Rocks. Summer.
Vallecito Creek Trail, September 13, 2010.

Sori, the brown dots, are in a symmetrical and mesmerizing pattern.

Sori are actually groupings of many individual brown sporangia, each of which encloses numerous spores.  In Polystichum lonchitis the sori are borne primarily on the middle and upper pinnae. (See the second photograph from the top of this page).  The spores within the sporangia ripen and eventually the wind or a tap by a passing animal sends out a cloud of spores.

When young, each brown sori cluster of sporangia is covered by an indusia, a shield-shaped epidermal outgrowth. Only the sori in the second from the top photograph (and the magnification of part of that photograph at left) still have their indusium. The photograph at far left shows sori that have lost their indusium; the photograph to its right shows gray indusium still covering the sori.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Polystichum lonchitis