Though widespread through much of northern Mexico and parts of the southwestern and south central United States, it is nowhere common.

Each leaf is made up of 20–45 pairs of smaller leaflets (pinna), which are also sometimes partially divided to less than half the width to the midline (1-pinnate to pinnate-pinnatifid).

The lower side of the leaflets are entirely covered in spear point shaped scales that are most often 1–1.5 millimeters long.

The upper sides of the leaves are covered in scales with a shape reminiscent of stars (stellate) or like rough hairs (coarsely ciliate).

[2] This status as a subspecies was reinterpreted by Richard H. Hevly as a separate species in a 1965 paper where he renamed it Notholaena integerrima.

In this case a fusion of A. cochisensis and a then unknown Mexican fern closely related to Astrolepis crassifolia.

[3] More recently an article in the book The Global Flora: Special Edition: GLOVAP Nomenclature Part 1 proposing moving it and many other fern species in the subfamily Cheilanthoideae into one genus, Hemionitis, was published by Maarten J. M. Christenhusz in 2018.

The currently existing populations are derived from a minimum of five and probably ten separate hybridization events and they found that the other parent species is almost undoubtedly Astrolepis obscura.

[10] The World Ferns database, however, asserts the correct name and classification is Astrolepis integerrima (Hook.)

In the American southwest Astrolepis integerrima can be found in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and very rarely in Colorado and Nevada.