Etymology Acrostichoides is the word that means resembling the Acrostichum, a tropical fern, where the sori completely cover the undersurface.

Description Rhizome: short-creeping, branching, covered with old stipe bases, scales bicolored, dense, broadly lanceolate to linear.
Frond: 25 cm high by 4 cm wide, evergreen, and persistent after withering the following spring, dimorphic, the sterile fronds much shorter than the fertile ones, blade/stipe ratio: 1:3.
Stipe: brown at base, then straw-colored, then green, scales at base and cylindrical hairs scattered along the upper groove of the stipe and rachis, continuing to the costa, vascular bundles: 2.
Blade: 2-pinnate fertile fronds, the sterile sometimes more, deltate to ovate, herbaceous, bright green, hydathodes sunken beneath the surface.
Pinnae: 5 to 6 pair, lanceolate, 1-2 cm, the fertile ones contracted; margins entire; veins free.
Sori: elongate, submarginal, indusium: false, strongly enrolled, sporangia: yellow, maturity: summer.

Culture Habitat: Noncalcareous cliff crevices, rock outcrops, and talus, often in relatively dry habitats, typically montane . Distribution: western and northern North America at higher altitudes or latitudes, northern China, Mongolia, Siberia. Hardy to -40°C, USDA Zone 2, requires a cool summer.

Synonyms
Cryptogramma crispa (Linnaeus) R. Brown ex Hooker subsp. acrostichoides (R. Brown) Hultén
Cryptogramma crispa var. acrostichoides (R. Brown) C. B. Clarke