Polypodium latum (T.Moore) T.Moore ex Sodiro
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Polypodiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Epiphytic or epilithic fern. Rhizome short-creeping, to 10 mm thick, strongly nodose and often branched, enveloped in a dense mass of brown-tomentose rootlets; scales few, appressed, light brown, finely subclathrate, roundish-ovate, 3-5 mm long, the apex obtuse. Fronds closely fasciculate, 25-130 cm long; stipes stout, 5-18 cm long, subquadrangular. Blades simple, broadly ligulate, elliptic, or oblanceolate, to 115 cm long, mostly 5-13 cm broad near or above the middle, the apex abruptly acute, the base cuneate to acuminate, the margins wavy, narrowly cartilaginous; primary veins prominent, oblique-spreading, connected by numerous irregularly arching cross-veins forming areoles with several included free veinlets, these variously combined to form secondary areoles in 3 or 4 rows, an intermediate costular vein sometimes developed. Sori 2- to 4-seriate between the primary veins, located on free areolar veinlets below the tips.
Distribution and Ecology - Occasional on rocks and shaded tree trunks in most forests. Bordeaux Mountain (A2612). Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas; Florida, Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela