Myriopteris cooperae
species of plant
Myriopteris cooperae, commonly called (Mrs.) Cooper's lip fern, is a small fern endemic to California. Its leaves grow in clusters and are highly dissected into oblong segments, rather than the beadlike segments found in some other members of the genus. The axes of the leaves are dark and covered in long, flattened hairs. One of the cheilanthoid lip ferns, it was usually classified in the genus Cheilanthes as Cheilanthes cooperae until 2013, when the genus Myriopteris was again recognized as separate from Cheilanthes. It grows in rocky habitats, usually over limestone. The species was named in honor of its collector, Sarah Paxson Cooper; according to Daniel Cady Eaton, who described it in 1875, it was the first fern species to be named for a female botanist.
Description
The rhizomes are short with closely-spaced leaf bases, typically 4 to 8 millimeters (0.2 to 0.3 in) in diameter, and upright or ascending rather than horizontal. The rhizome bears persistent scales, whose shape ranges from linear-subulate to linear-lanceolate or lanceolate. They are brown or tan to reddish-brown in color, more or less uniform in color or darkening towards the tip.
The fronds arise from the rhizome in clusters, reaching a size from 5 to 30 centimeters (2 to 10 in) long, (occasionally to 32 centimeters (13 in) or more), and 3 to 6 centimeters (1 to 2 in) wide (occasionally to 8 centimeters (3.1 in) or more).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Myriopteris cooperae” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17196543. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013 and 1875.
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This entry incorporates text from “Myriopteris cooperae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.