Other common names:
Common Polypody, Rock Cap Fern, Rock Polypody, Rock Polypody Fern Other scientific names: Polypodium vinlandicum, Polypodium vulgare Family: Polypody Family (Polypodiaceae) Distinctive features:
Small ferns, les than 1 foot tall. On rocks in shady places. Often found alongside Cedars. Similar species: • Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) - larger, leaflets different, doesn't grow in rocks. • Northern Holly Fern (Polystichum lonchitis) - much larger, leaflets different. • Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) - stalk dark-coloured. Fronds: Once divided Habitat:
Usually shaded woods. Native/Non-native:
Native Status:
Common.
Origin and Meaning of Names:
Scientific Name: virginianum: of Virginia Photographs:
96 photographs available, of which 11 are featured on this page. SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOGRAPHS.
A patch of Polypody on a shaded wooded slope on Lake Superior.
In the deep woods. Note how these ferns grow singly from the ground.
Nice patch with late afternoon sun shining through the leaves in November.
Typical Polypody habitat. There's a patch of it in the foreground, Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) trees all around, shaded, on the top of the Niagara Escarpment.
A single frond.
The underside of a frond.
Sun shining through a fertile frond, showing the arrangement of the sori - in neat rows on either side of the central vein.
Sori on underside of pinnae in early November.
Herbarium specimen showing the growth form of this fern.
(Royal Botanical Gardens Herbarium, Burlington, Ontario)
