Polypodium amorphum |
Polypodiaceae |
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irregular polypody, irregular polypody fern, Pacific polypody |
polypody family |
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Habit | Plants perennial, terrestrial, on rock, or often epiphytic, erect, arching, or occasionally pendent. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | often whitish pruinose, slender, to 6 mm diam., acrid-tasting; scales weakly bicolored, lanceolate, contorted distally, bases and margins light brown, sometimes with dark central stripe, margins often coarsely dentate. |
long- to short-creeping, branched or not, bearing scales and few to numerous roots, usually dictyostelic. |
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Leaves | to 30 cm. |
monomorphic to dimorphic, circinate in bud. |
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Petiole | slender, to 1.5 mm diam. |
usually articulate at base [rarely nonarticulate, as in Loxogramme], lacking scales or sometimes scaly, with usually 3 vascular bundles. |
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Blade | oblong to rarely deltate, pinnatifid, usually widest near middle, occasionally at or near base, to 4 cm wide, somewhat leathery; rachis sparsely scaly to glabrescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially; scales lanceolate-ovate, usually more than 6 cells wide. |
simple to often pinnatifid, pinnatisect, or pinnate, infrequently more divided; rachis grooved or not adaxially. |
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Segments | oblong, less than 12 mm wide; margins entire to crenulate; apex rounded to broadly acute; midrib glabrous adaxially. |
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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 | midway between margin and midrib to nearly marginal, less than 3 mm diam., circular when immature. |
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 | more than 58 µm, rugose to verrucose, surface projections less than 3 µm tall. |
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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Venation | free. |
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Sporangiasters | present, usually less than 40 per sorus, heads covered with glandular hairs. |
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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 | = 74. |
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Polypodium amorphum |
Polypodiaceae |
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Phenology | Sporulating summer–fall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Cliffs and rocky slopes, usually on igneous substrates | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1800 m (0–5900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
OR; WA; BC
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Worldwide; especially tropics and subtropics |
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Discussion | The diploid Polypodium amorphum is one of the progenitors of allotetraploid P. hesperium, and these two species are occasionally sympatric. Although P. amorphum can be mistaken for P. hesperium, consistent differences exist for separating these two species (see comments under P. hesperium). Hybridization between P. amorphum and P. hesperium results in triploid individuals with misshapen spores (F. A. Lang 1971). (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 > Polypodium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. montense | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Suksdorf: Werdenda 1: 16. (1927) | J. Presl & C. Presl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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