Myriopteris parryi is a small tufted fern growing from a short creeping rhizome with medium brown scales, most with a darker thread-like mid-stripe.

Leaf segments are small, nearly round, and flat, with tangled hairs about 4 mm long densely on both surfaces.

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.

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