Polypodium aureum L.

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Polypodiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Polypodium aureum L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome creeping, 9-15 mm thick (excluding scales), densely clothed with numerous pale orange or tawny, denticulate-ciliate scales mostly 10-15 mm long, these linear-attenuate or filiform from a slightly enlarged and darker base attached peltately by a minute brown stalk. Fronds arching or pendent, 55-170 cm long, seasonally deciduous; stipes shorter than the blades, 20-70 cm long, lustrous dark brown to light reddish- brown, glabrous. Blades ovate-oblong or broadly oblong, 35-100 cm long, 22-45 cm broad, deeply and coarsely pinnatifid, with a long, often much larger terminal segment; segments 6-22 pairs, ligulate or lance-ligulate, 2-3.8 cm broad, obtuse to acuminate at apex, joined at base by a rhachis-wing 2-9 mm wide; margins subentire to minutely and distantly crenulate; veins mostly reticulate, forming a row of oblong to narrowly obdeltate costal areoles without included veinlets, then two uneven and inegular series of larger areoles with included veinlets mixed with smaller areoles lacking included veinlets; veinlets 1-3 (if two or three usually joined at the tips, or two joined and one free), then (toward margin) many smaller areoles of inegular shape and unequal size, some with a single included free veinlet, terminating along the margin in an inegular row of small adaxial hydathodes, these on very short free veinlet tips or at the junction of two veinlets, and each secreting a minute white scale of calcium carbonate; tissue usually green, rarely somewhat glaucous. Sori round or oval, located at the junction of two intra-areolate veinlets or sometimes at tip of a single free veinlet; very rarely a partial third row of sori present.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Florida, Bahamas, Greater Antilles (but rare or nearly lacking in Jamaica), Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Known from many widely scattered localities; recorded from Adjuntas, Aibonito, Barranquitas, Bayamon, Cayey, Dorado, Isabela, Juana Diaz, Manati, Quebradillas, Rio Grande, Salinas, and Yauco; undoubtedly occurs in many other areas; also Vieques and Culebra. Virgin Islands. St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda. Habitat. On trees, mossy ledges, boulders, cliflfs, root-masses at base of aroids and bromeliads, and sometimes tenestrial in shaded humus, at low to rather high elevations (sea-level-950 m), frequent or locally common.

  • Discussion

    Type. L I N N 1251.10, from "America."

    Syn. Phlebodium aureum (Linnaeus) J. Smith, J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 59. 1841.

    Chrysopteris aurea (Linnaeus) Link, Fil, spec. 121. 1841.

    This species has been shown to have originated as a fertile allotetraploid hybrid of Polypodium pseudoaureum and P. decumanum (both diploid). It is more c o m m o n than either of its parent species, has a wider geographic range, and flourishes in lower and drier habitats than P. pseudoaureum. A sterile triploid back-cross between P. aureum and P. decumanum has been found near Laguna Tortuguero, Municipio de Manati, where both these species are known to occur.