Etymology Lanosa means woolly.

Description Rhizome: short-creeping, scales brown, linear-lanceolate.
Frond: 40 cm high by 5 cm wide, deciduous, can go dormant in dry spells, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1 to 3:1.
Stipe: chestnut brown, rounded above, the color extending into the rachis and costae, many arching hairs, a lens helps, vascular bundles: 1.
Blade: 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at the base, less above, lanceolate, papery, gray-green above, white-waxy below, reddish hairs, linear, segmented, sparse above, wooly below.
Pinnae: 12 to 14 pair, opposite at base, sub-opposite to alternate above, isodromous throughout, lanceolate; pinnules 4-6, opposite, per pinna, pinnate at the bottom of the blade, pinnatifid above; segments segment margins inrolled; margins serrate; veins free, obscure.
Sori: linear, discontinuous, submarginal, indusium: false, continuous along the margin, sporangia: black, maturity: summer to fall.

Culture Habitat: rocky granitic slopes and ledges. Distribution: United State: Kansas to Connecticut, south to the Gulf Coast. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.

Synonyms
Nephrodium lanosum Michaux
Cheilanthes vestita (Sprengel) Swartz