Flora of North America species comparison

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Polypodium californicum

California polypody
Stems

dull or inconspicuously glaucous, moderately stout, to 10 mm diam., acrid or bland-tasting;

scales uniformly brown or slightly darker near point of attachment, lanceolate-ovate, symmetric, margins entire to erose.
Leaves

to 70 cm.
Petiole

usually slender, to 3 mm diam.
Blade

deltate to lanceolate-ovate, pinnatifid, usually widest near base, to 20 cm wide, leathery to herbaceous;

rachis sparsely scaly to glabrescent abaxially, puberulent adaxially;

scales deltate to ovate, usually more than 10 cells wide.
Segments

linear-lanceolate to oblong, usually less than 15 mm wide;

margins serrate;

apex widely obtuse to rarely attenuate;

midrib puberulent adaxially.
Sori

midway between margin and midrib or slightly closer to midrib, usually less than 3 mm diam., oval when immature.
Spores

less than 58 µm, verrucose, with surface projections to 3 µm.
Venation

weakly to conspicuously anastomosing, most segments containing several areoles, often forming 1 row.
Sporangiasters

absent.
2n

= 74.

Polypodium californicum
Phenology Sporulating early winter–spring.
Habitat Cliffs and soil on rocky slopes, on a variety of substrates but usually igneous
Elevation 0–1500 m. (0–4900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico in Baja California
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

R. M. Lloyd and F. A. Lang (1964) recognized two cytotypes within Polypodium californicum. The tetraploid has proved to be an allopolyploid involving P. californicum and P. glycyrrhiza and is treated here as a separate species, P. calirhiza, following S. A. Whitmore and A. R. Smith (1991). Polypodium californicum can be confused with P. calirhiza, but it usually can be distinguished by blade shape, venation, spore size, and geographic distribution. D. S. Barrington et al. (1986) reported that spores of northern populations of P. californicum can be as large as those of P. calirhiza, but the former species has veins forming more areoles per segment than does the latter.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Polypodiaceae > Polypodium
Sibling taxa
P. amorphum, P. appalachianum, P. calirhiza, P. glycyrrhiza, P. hesperium, P. saximontanum, P. scouleri, P. sibiricum, P. triseriale, P. virginianum
Synonyms P. californicum var. kaulfussii, P. vulgare subsp. californicum, P. vulgare var. kaulfussii
Name authority Kaulfuss: Enum. Filic. 102. (1824)
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Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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