146 Records

Purple Cliffbrake grows over all of eastern North America and much of the western United States, as well as in Central America.

Purple Cliffbrake is a stiff, wiry fern that grows in clumps. The stipe and rachis are reddish-purple and the blades are gray-green. The pinnae are lance-shaped to long and narrow. The lower pinnae are divided into pinnules, sometimes with 1 or 2 basal lobes, whereas the upper pinnae are undivided. On fertile pinnae or pinnules, the margins are rolled under and somewhat cover the sori, which line the undersides of the margins.

The stipe and rachis have short curly hairs on the upper surface, and the lower surfaces of the pinnules have scattered hair-like scales. These features differentiate this species from Pellaea glabella, which generally has few or none of these.

Look for Purple Cliffbrake in cracks or crevices of dry rock outcrops, especially calcareous rocks. It grows out of the mortar in structures built of rock, such as walls like those in the locks of the C&O Canal.