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licorice fern

Stems

moderately stout, not white-pruinose;

scales dense, lanceolate, brown; sweet licorice taste.

Leaves

to 60 cm;

petiole slender; to 20 × 0.2 cm.

Blade

s to 40 cm; pinnatifid, narrowly ovate to oblong, not leathery;

adaxial surface with whitish multicellular hairs (at least along the rachis);

scales sparse on the rachis abaxially, brown; narrow; and hair-like, mostly less than 3 cells wide.

Pinnae

narrowly oblong; to 4 × 0.8 cm;

margins serrate;

apex mostly acute to long-acuminate;

veins free.

Sori

round; less than 3 mm;

sporangiasters absent.

2n

=74.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Epiphytic and on cliffs and rocks. 0–2300 m. Casc, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, WA; north to AK; northeastern Asia. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 95
Duncan Thomas
Sibling taxa
P. amorphum, P. calirhiza, P. hesperium, P. scouleri
Synonyms Polypodium vulgare, Polypodium vulgare var. occidentale
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