Schizaea pusilla Pursh

One of the most famous plants of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, this peculiar little plant has attracted much interest (W. H. Wagner Jr. 1963). It is abundant in southern Newfoundland. Plants from eastern Canada are shorter and denser than those from New Jersey. The same or a closely related species has been reported from Peru (R. G. Stolze 1987).

Plants minute, rarely more than 10 cm. Stems 0.3--3 cm, covered by leaves or leaf bases. Leaves dimorphic. Sterile leaves ± coiled and spreading, very numerous, somewhat flattened, 1--5 cm × 0.2--0.3 mm. Fertile leaves upright, 1--12 cm; petioles long, straight, filiform; fertile blades apical, short, folded, 2--8 × 1--3 mm, segments 3--8 pairs, with multicellular hairs along margins. Gametophyte an algalike, branching filament. 2 n = 206.

Schizaea pusilla Pursh, Fl. Am, Sept. 657. 1814
Plants densely fasciculate, the rhizomes minute and short-creeping ; fronds linear, the sterile ones numerous and intricately entangled, 2-7 cm. long, about 0.5 mm. broad, ascending, recurved and tortuous, flattish and slightly concave above, convex below, finely striate ; fertile fronds rigidly erect, 4-15 cm. long, far exceeding the sterile fronds, a little thicker, straight or flexuous ; sporangiophore ovate, conduplicate, the segments (3-8 pairs) oblique, 4-9 mm. long, linear-oblong, obtuse, strongly concave (the apex cucullate), the upper ones greatly reduced, the costa and margins rusty-pilose ; sporangia close, 4-9 pairs; spores minutely areolate.
Type locality : New Jersey.
Distribution : Pine barrens of central and eastern New Jersey, usually in sphagnum ; Nova Scotia ; Newfoundland.

Schizaea pusilla, the little curlygrass fern, is a species of fern in the family Schizaeaceae. It was first described by the German-American botanist Frederick Traugott Pursh in 1814. It is native to New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia in Canada, the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and North Carolina in the United States of America. It is listed as endangered by the state of New York.

Schizaea pusilla là một loài dương xỉ trong họ Schizaeaceae. Loài này được Pursh mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1814.