Pellaea

Pellaea, or cliff breaks, is a genus of somewhere between 35-65 species, most of which are endemic to the southwestern United States and Mexico, with a number of species also occuring in southern Africa. In the past there has been a tendancy to classify species as Pellaea which actually belong to other genera, such as Cheilanthes.

They are small to medium sized evergreen ferns which tend to inhabit dry, rocky places, in temperate to subtropical climates. They often grow in full sun and many species have foliage which transitions from frosted green to sun-repellant blue as light increases.

Most of the species native to America do not transplant readily.

A total of six species are endemic to California: Pellaea andromedifolia, Pellaea brachyptera, Pellaea breweri, Pellaea bridgesii, Pellaea mucronata, and Pellaea truncata, along with two sub-species, Pellaea mucronata ssp. californica and Pellaea mucronata ssp. mucronata, and one naturally occuring hybrid, Pellaea ×glaciogena.

The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants lists four species as threatened.

Click here for a distribution map for Pellaea in the United States and Canada (U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service).

Click here for Pellaea in the the Encyclopedia of Life.

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