[1] The rachis and costae (pinna axes) are densely covered in scales similar to those of the stipe, 1 to 2 millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 in) long, pressed against the surface of the axis.

[1] On fertile fronds, the sori are protected by false indusia formed by the edge of the leaf curling back over the underside.

[6] The epithet cucullans, meaning "hooded",[7] presumably refers to the broad false indusium concealing the sori, which he described with that term ("cucullato donatis").

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.

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

M. allosuroides belongs to what Grusz et al. informally named the alabamensis clade, and is sister to the very similar M. notholaenoides.

[11] Myriopteris cucullans grows throughout most of Mexico, but is absent from the Baja Peninsula and the northwestern states, extending southward into Guatemala.