Etymology Densa means crowded, or thickly packed.

Description Rhizome: short-creeping, scales brown to black or often bicolored with dark central stripe.
Frond: 25 cm high , evergreen, somewhat dimorphic, fertile fronds with longer stipes and narrower segments, blade/stipe ratio: 1:3.
Stipe: dark reddish brown, with single groove, glabrous, vascular bundles: 1.
Blade: 3-pinnate at base, or more, triangular, leathery , glabrous.
Pinnae: 5 to 7 pair, composed of very narrow segments; pinnules pointed tips; segments linear, 3-8 mm, midrib prominent below; margins entire; veins obscure, free.
Sori: sporangia, submarginal, continuous along length of segments except at apex, indusium: false, inrolled margin, broad, thin, dry, sporangia: dark brown.

Culture Habitat: crevices, rocky outcrops, associated with serpentine, sometimes in chaparral. Distribution: western North America, British Columbia, western Montana south to Califormia, disjunct in Quebec. Hardy to -30�C, USDA Zone 4, but given the distribution, the source is likely important.

Distinctive Characteristics The long, narrow segments, the very long stipe,�and the broad, thin indusium are distinctive.

Synonyms
Onychium densum Brackenridge
Cheilanthes siliquosa Maxon
Pellaea densa (Brackenridge) Hooker