rock brake

rock brake

n.

Any of several ferns of the genus Crytogramma that usually grow in rocky ground and have compound fronds and podlike fertile leaflets.

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rock brake

n

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Plants) any of various ferns of the genera Pellaea and Cryptogramma, which grow on rocky ground and have sori at the ends of the veins

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	rock brake - any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions cliff brake, cliff-brake fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores genus Pellaea, Pellaea - genus of chiefly small rock-loving ferns; in some classification systems it is placed in the family Polypodiaceae or Adiantaceae coffee fern, Pellaea andromedifolia - evergreen fern of California and Baja California Pellaea atropurpurea, purple rock brake - very short shallowly creeping North American fern usually growing on cliffs or walls and having dark glossy leaf axes bird's-foot fern, Pellaea mucronata, Pellaea ornithopus - cliff brake of California and Baja California having purple-brown leafstalks
	2.	rock brake - dwarf deciduous lithophytic ferns fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores Cryptogramma, genus Cryptogramma - sometimes placed in family Polypodiaceae or Cryptogrammataceae American parsley fern, American rock brake, Cryptogramma acrostichoides - rock-inhabiting fern of northern North America growing in massive tufts and having fronds resembling parsley Cryptogramma crispa, European parsley fern, mountain parsley fern - fern of Europe and Asia Minor having short slender rhizome and densely tufted bright green fronds resembling parsley
	3.	rock brake - chiefly lithophytic or epiphytic fern of North America and east Asia American wall fern, Polypodium virgianum, rock polypody polypody - any of numerous ferns of the genus Polypodium