The scales may be of a uniform brown color, or bear a dark central stripe with paler edges.

[2][3] The stipe (the stalk of the leaf below the blade) makes up about half the length of the frond,[2] measuring 5 to 31 centimeters (2.0 to 12 in) long.

[5] The stipe is shiny, rounded, and dark to light brown,[2][3] covered with 1-to-2-millimeter (0.04 to 0.08 in)-long hairs and filiform (threadlike) scales[2] that are gray to red-brown in color.

These are ovate-lanceolate to broadly deltate in shape, and deeply cordate (notched at the base to appear heart-shaped).

[2][3] The smallest divisions of the leaf are round or slightly heart-shaped, beadlike in appearance,[3][4] not exceeding 1 to 2 millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 in) across[3] and concave below.

He named it for Daniel Cleveland, the collector of the type specimen, which came from "a mountain about forty miles from San Diego, California".

[7] Farwell's name was rendered unnecessary when Cheilanthes was conserved over Allosorus in the Paris Code published in 1956.

Convergent evolution in arid environments is thought to be responsible for widespread homoplasy in the morphological characters traditionally used to classify it and the segregate genera that have sometimes been recognized.

On the basis of molecular evidence, Amanda Grusz and Michael D. Windham revived the genus Myriopteris in 2013 for a group of species formerly placed in Cheilanthes.

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

Members of the "core covillei" clade, including M. clevelandii, have leaves finely divided into bead-like segments.

[2][12] It is found in a variety of rocky, exposed habitats, including chaparral,[4] on slopes and ledges,[2][3] or at the bases of boulders and in crevices.