Petiole glabrous, not viscid-glandular. Blade thin and herbaceous, sometimes thick (but not leathery), not viscid-glandular, abaxially densely white-farinose, adaxially glabrous. Distal pinnae mostly regularly lobed. Proximal basiscopic lobes of basal pinnae pinnatifid, often deeply so.

Chaparral, pine and oak woodlands; 100--900 m; Calif.

Pentagramma triangularis subsp. semipallida , as here treated, remains heterogeneous. Diploid (based on spore size) populations occur in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Butte County, California. Tetraploids (based on spore size) of similar morphology are apparently restricted to Santa Barbara County, California, including the adjacent Channel Islands. The relationship between these two variants has not been studied in detail.