General: Short creeping stems, often branched from short rhizomes, with many fronds, in dense or radiating tufts. Leaves: Monomorphic, with reddish brown or blackish brown petiole, lustrous, 1-4 cm long; blade linear, once pinnate, 3-22 cm long by 0.5-1.5 cm wide, thin, glabrous to sparsely pubescent; base gradually tapers; rachis reddish brown; pinnae in 15-35 pairs, oblong to oval, often oblong and broadly wedge-shaped at base and somewhat expanded at upper margin, but not auriculate, entire, crenate to slightly incised; stipe firm, threadlike and shiny purplish-brown. Sporangia: Sori in 2-4 pairs per pinna, on both sides, spores 64 per sporangia. Ecology: Found on acidic substrates like sandstone, basalt and granite, often in the shade, in crevices and along cliffs from 6,000-9,000 ft (1829-2743 m). Notes: FNA indicates that our species is ssp. trichomanes. Ethnobotany: Taken for coughs, for liver complaints, and for irregular menstruation. Etymology: Asplenium is from Greek a, without and spleen, while trichomanes is the name of a fern as mentioned by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, for a fern resembling Adiantum. Sources: FNA 1993, Dittmer 1954, Yarborough and Powell 2002, Kearney and Peebles 1969