Phlebodium aureum |
Polypodiaceae |
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golden polypody, goldfoot fern |
polypody family |
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Habit | Plants perennial, terrestrial, on rock, or often epiphytic, erect, arching, or occasionally pendent. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | creeping, ca. 8–15(–30) mm diam., densely scaly; scales reddish to golden, long-attenuate, 10–20 mm. |
long- to short-creeping, branched or not, bearing scales and few to numerous roots, usually dictyostelic. |
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Leaves | bright green or glaucous, arching to pendent, scattered, 3–13 dm. |
monomorphic to dimorphic, circinate in bud. |
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Petiole | 1.5–5 dm, smooth, with a few scales near base. |
usually articulate at base [rarely nonarticulate, as in Loxogramme], lacking scales or sometimes scaly, with usually 3 vascular bundles. |
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Blade | pinnately and deeply lobed, 3–8 × 1–5 dm, glabrous, terminal segment conform. |
simple to often pinnatifid, pinnatisect, or pinnate, infrequently more divided; rachis grooved or not adaxially. |
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Segments | lanceolate to elliptic, or linear-lanceolate to linear, 6–20 × 1–4 cm, margins entire or sometimes undulate. |
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Veins | free (and simple to several times forked) to often anastomosing in complex systems, areoles with or without included veinlets. |
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Sori | in 1 line on each side of costae, occasionally 2d row present, sori terminal or at junction of free included veinlets. |
borne abaxially on veins, round to oblong, occasionally elongate, rarely marginal, rarely covering surface; paraphyses present or absent; sporangia with stalk of 2 or 3 rows of cells; indusia absent. |
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Spores | usually transparent or yellowish (rarely greenish), all 1 kind, bilateral, monolete [rarely trilete, as in some Loxogramme], surface most often smooth, tuberculate, verrucose, or granulate, occasionally spiny, 64 per sporangium (spores globose and 32 per sporangium in apogamous spp.). |
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Gametophytes | green, aboveground, cordate or elliptic, glabrous or sometimes glandular; archegonia and antheridia borne on lower surface, antheridia 3-celled. |
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Indument | on blade absent, or petiole, rachis, costae, and sometimes blade tissue usually bearing hairs (these often septate and with reddish crosswalls) and/or scales. |
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2n | = 148. |
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Phlebodium aureum |
Polypodiaceae |
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Habitat | Epiphytic on a variety of trees or on logs, dense piles of humus, but most commonly among old leaf bases of Sabal palmetto Loddiges, in various habitats from hammocks to swamps | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
FL; GA; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
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Worldwide; especially tropics and subtropics |
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Discussion | Phlebodium aureum occurs north to Dixie and Nassau counties in Florida, and it is disjunct in Franklin County. It is also found in Georgia (W. H. Duncan 1954; L. H. Snyder Jr. and J. G. Bruce 1986). Two varieties (or subspecies) have been recognized, Phlebodium aureum var. aureum and P. aureum var. areolatum (Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow) Farwell. The latter is now often elevated to species rank and given the name P. pseudoaureum (Cavanilles) Lellinger. Phlebodium pseudoaureum is widespread in Central America and South America (D. B. Lellinger 1987) and has been reported as rare in Florida by G. R. Proctor (1985). I have not seen specimens that could be convincingly referred to P. pseudoaureum. Phlebodium aureum, a tetraploid species, is believed to have arisen through allopolyploidy following hybridization between P. pseudoaureum and P. decumanum (Willdenow) J. Smith, a widespread species in tropical America. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Phymatosorus scolopendria (Burman f.) Pichi-Sermolli, native to the Old World, is a rare escape in southern Florida. Genera in this family are variously circumscribed, and the New World species historically were placed in the single genus Polypodium. Many of the segregates recognized here are still placed in Polypodium in recent floristic accounts. Limits of genera in both Old World and New World are controversial and are currently under study by several workers. (Key to genera of Polypodiaceae) Genera ca. 40, species perhaps 500 (7 genera, 25 species in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2, p. 312. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Polypodiaceae > Phlebodium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Polypodium aureum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) J. Smith: J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 59. (1841) | J. Presl & C. Presl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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