It grows in rocky habitats, either in sun or in shade, and is distinguished from similar species by the presence of pale yellow (rather than white) powder on the underside of its leaves.

[1] Of this length, nearly half is made up by the stipe (the stalk of the leaf, below the blade),[1] which is shiny and round, hairless, and chestnut-brown[2] to dark purple in color.

[1] The leaf blades are deltate (triangular) in shape, tripinnate (cut into pinnae, pinnules and pinnulets) to almost quadripinnate.

[1] The underside of the leaf is coated in pale yellow farina (powder), which is sparsely scattered on the upper surface.

[1] It was first described by William Ralph Maxon and Charles Alfred Weatherby in 1939 as Notholaena delicatula, based on material collected by Edward Palmer in Coahuila.

[6] In 2018, Maarten J. M. Christenhusz transferred the species to Hemionitis as H. delicatula, as part of a program to consolidate the cheilanthoid ferns into that genus.

[7] While the distinctness of A. delicatula from A. incana has been questioned in the past,[1] phylogenetic studies have upheld the separation of the two taxa.