Wooly Lip Fern, (Cheilanthes lanosa)

I found this patch of ferns in a most unlikely spot yesterday. It was growing under a cedar tree on the sunny south facing slope of the Savanna Bluff Overlook. I think of ferns growing in moist shaded areas but this fern was growing in a rocky glade that was bone dry. How could it look so green after a month of intense heat and no rain? To see more pictures of the fern, click here.

George Yatskievych (the leading fern expert in Missouri) identifies this as Cheilanthes lanosa- (Wooly Lip Fern).