Distribution
Georgia, Ukraine

Native to: Afghanistan, Albania, Altay, Arizona, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, California, Canary Is., Central European Rus, China North-Central, Colorado, Corse, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, East Himalaya, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Idaho, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Krym, Madeira, Mexico Northwest, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, New Mexico, North Caucasus, North European Russi, Northwest European R, Norway, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South Dakota, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Texas, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Tuva, Ukraine, Utah, West Himalaya, West Siberia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Xinjiang, Yugoslavia.

Roots not proliferous. Stems erect, much branched to produce dense many-stemmed tufts or mats bearing numerous crowded leaves; scales dark reddish brown to black throughout, narrowly deltate, 2-4 × 0.3-0.6 mm, margins entire. Leaves monomorphic. Petiole dark reddish brown proximally, fading to green distally, 2-13 cm, 2-5 times length of blade; indument absent. Blade linear, simple or more often 1-pinnate, 0.5-4 × 0.1-0.4 cm, occasionally wider when pinnae strongly diverge, leathery, glabrous; base acute; apex acute, not rooting at tip. Rachis green, lustrous, glabrous. Pinnae of pinnate leaves 2(-4), strongly ascending to give forked appearance, linear, (5-)10-30 × 0.75-3 mm; base acute; margins remotely lacerate; apex acute. Veins free, obscure. Sori usually 2+ per pinna, parallel to margins. Spores 64 per sporangium. 2 n = 144.
Cliffs of various substrates.