The sori of Cheilanthes lanosa are elongate and they are hidden under the inrolled margins of the blade segments. The blades can be larger than in C. feei, up to 50 cm long, and only twice pinnate at the base. The blades are conspicuously pubescent with long hairs on the abaxial (lower) surface. The ultimate fertile segments are clearly longer than wide, in contrast to C. feei for which they are nearly round.

Woolly lip fern is known in Wisconsin from only one historical collection, in St. Croix County, far disjunct from the rest of its distribution which extends from eastern Nebraska and Texas, east across southern Illinois to New Jersey and south to Georgia.