Polypodium virginianum

Last updated

Rock polypody
Polypodium virginianum3.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Polypodiales
Suborder: Polypodiineae
Family: Polypodiaceae
Genus: Polypodium
Species:
P. virginianum
Binomial name
Polypodium virginianum
L.
Synonyms
  • P. vinlandicum A. Love & D. Love,
  • P. vulgare L. var. americanum Hooker
  • P. vulgare L. var. virginianum (L.) D. C. Eaton

Polypodium virginianum, commonly known as rock polypody, rock cap fern, or common polypody, is a small evergreen species of fern native to the Eastern United States and Canada. It generally grows on rocks and occasionally on tree roots in nature.

Contents

Description

Polypodium virginianum is a small rhizomatous fern with narrow leaves 8–40 centimetres (3.1–15.7 in) long and 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) wide borne on smooth, scaleless petioles 3–15 centimetres (1.2–5.9 in). Leaves are evergreen, oblong and pinnatifid with acuminate tips.

Large, circular sori are prominently featured on the underside of fertile fronds in late summer and autumn. Sporangia are intermixed with long brown glandular hairs. [2]

Polypodium sori.JPG
Sori close up.JPG
Close up
Numerous sori on the underside of a leaf

Taxonomy

Polypodium virginianum has several synonyms including: P. vinlandicum A. Love & D. Love, P. vulgare L. var. americanum Hooker, [3] P. vulgare L. var. virginianum (L.) D. C. Eaton. [4] It is generally treated as distinct, though some have recommended it is equally well treated as a North American variety of the circumboreal Polypodium vulgare . [2]

This species is an allotetraploid of hybrid origin, the parents being Polypodium appalachianum and P. sibiricum .

Distribution and habitat

Polypodium virginianum typically grows on boulders, cliffs, and rocky slopes and does not need well-developed soil. It is common throughout eastern North America; its native distribution ranges from Newfoundland to Yukon south to Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fern</span> Class of vascular plants

The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta are a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

<i>Asplenium platyneuron</i> Species of fern

Asplenium platyneuron, commonly known as ebony spleenwort or brownstem spleenwort, is a fern native to North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It takes its common name from its dark, reddish-brown, glossy stipe and rachis, which support a once-divided, pinnate leaf. The fertile fronds, which die off in the winter, are darker green and stand upright, while the sterile fronds are evergreen and lie flat on the ground. An auricle at the base of each pinna points towards the tip of the frond. The dimorphic fronds and alternate, rather than opposite, pinnae distinguish it from the similar black-stemmed spleenwort.

<i>Pleopeltis polypodioides</i> Species of fern

Pleopeltis polypodioides, also known as the resurrection fern, is a species of creeping, coarse-textured fern native to the Americas and Africa.

<i>Asplenium scolopendrium</i> Species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae

Asplenium scolopendrium, commonly known as the hart's-tongue fern, is an evergreen fern in the family Aspleniaceae native to the Northern Hemisphere.

<i>Botrypus</i> Species of fern

Botrypus virginianus, synonym Botrychium virginianum, sometimes called rattlesnake fern is a species of perennial fern in the adders-tongue family. It is monotypic within the genus Botrypus, meaning that it is the only species within the genus. It is called the rattlesnake fern in some parts of North America, due to its habit of growing in places where rattlesnakes are also found. Rattlesnake fern prefers to grow in rich, moist woods in dense shade and will not tolerate direct sunlight.

<i>Ligustrum vulgare</i> Species of flowering plant

Ligustrum vulgare is a species of Ligustrum native to central and southern Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia, from Ireland and southwestern Sweden south to Morocco, and east to Poland and northwestern Iran.

<i>Polypodium vulgare</i> Species of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium vulgare, the common polypody, is an evergreen fern of the family Polypodiaceae. Polypodium vulgare is an allotetraploid species, believed to have arisen by chromosome doubling of a sterile diploid hybrid between two ferns which are not known in Europe. The fern's proposed parents are the northern Asian and northern North American Polypodium sibiricum and western North American Polypodium glycyrrhiza. Biochemical data point to a species from eastern Asia as the second possible parent. The name is derived from poly (many) and pous, podos . Polypody has traditional uses in cooking for its aroma and sweet taste, and in herbal medicine as a purgative and vermifuge.

<i>Trillium pusillum</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium pusillum is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae known by the common names dwarf trillium, least trillium and dwarf wakerobin. It is native to the southeastern and south-central United States from Oklahoma to Maryland.

<i>Dryopteris intermedia</i> Species of wood fern

Dryopteris intermedia, the intermediate wood fern or evergreen wood fern, is a perennial, evergreen wood fern native to eastern North America. It is a diploid species, and is the parent of several species of hybrid origin, including Dryopteris carthusiana. Other common names for this species include intermediate shield fern, fancy wood fern, fancy fern, glandular wood fern, American shield fern and common wood fern.

<i>Polypodium appalachianum</i> Species of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium appalachianum is a fern species native to eastern North America. Sometimes called the Appalachian polypody or Appalachian rockcap fern, it is very similar in appearance to Polypodium virginianum. For years, P. virginianum—long considered a variety of the British Polypodium vulgare—was recognized as having cryptic races, with diploid, triploid, and tetraploid representatives. Since the triploid specimens bore abortive spores, it was apparently the hybrid between the diploid and tetraploid groups. In 1991, it was resolved that the type of P. virginianum was the tetraploid series, and that it is an allotetraploid species of hybrid origin, with the diploid species as one parent. The diploid species was then named P. appalachianum. The other parent of P. virginianum was found to be Polypodium sibiricum. The tetraploid of hybrid derivation tolerates warmer climates than either parent.

<i>Polypodium californicum</i> Species of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium californicum is a species of fern known by the common name California polypody.

<i>Polypodium hesperium</i> Species of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium hesperium is a species of fern known by the common name western polypody. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, and the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico, where it grows in rocky habitat types.

<i>Polypodium scouleri</i> Species of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium scouleri is a species of fern known by the common names leathery polypody, Scouler's polypody, coast polypody and leather-leaf fern. It is native to coastal western North America from British Columbia to Guadalupe Island off Baja California. It is a plant of the coastline, growing in cracks on coastal bluffs, in oceanside forests, beach dunes, and similar habitat. It is often affected by heavy fogs and sea spray. This polypody anchors with a waxy, scaly rhizome. It produces triangular or oblong leaves up to 85 centimeters in maximum length and 8 cm width. Each leaf is made up of many round-tipped linear or oblong segments which are usually stiff and leathery in texture and edged with shallow, rounded teeth. The underside of each leaf segment is crowded with rounded sori each up to half a centimeter wide. The sori contain the spores.

<i>Campyloneurum phyllitidis</i> Species of fern

Campyloneurum phyllitidis, commonly known as the long strap fern, is a species of fern in the family Polypodiaceae.

Common polypody is a common name for several ferns in the genus Polypodium and may refer to:

<i>Andersonglossum virginianum</i> Species of flowering plant

Andersonglossum virginianum, known as southern wild comfrey, is a flowering plant in the borage family native to North America. It is also sometimes called blue houndstongue.

<i>Polypodium cambricum</i> Species of fern in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium cambricum, the southern polypody, limestone polypody, or Welsh polypody, is a species of fern in the family Polypodiaceae, native to southern and western Europe where it grows on shady rocks, near the coasts of the Mediterranean Basin and in the mountains of Atlantic Europe. It is a spreading, terrestrial, deciduous fern growing to 60 centimetres (24 in) tall, with pinnate fronds. The sori are yellow in winter.

<i>Polypodium</i> Genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae

Polypodium is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Polypodioideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The genus is widely distributed throughout the world, with the highest species diversity in the tropics. The name is derived from Ancient Greek poly (πολύ) "many" + podion (πόδιον) "little foot", on account of the foot-like appearance of the rhizome and its branches. They are commonly called polypodies or rockcap ferns, but for many species unique vernacular names exist.

<i>Polypodium amorphum</i> Species of fern

Polypodium amorphum is a species of fern with the common name irregular polypody, which grows near the northwest coast of North America.

References

  1. "NatureServe Explorer 2.0 - Polypodium virginianum Rock Polypody". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Gleason, Henry A.; Cronquist, Arthur (1991). Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Bronx, NY: The New York Botanical Garden Press. ISBN   0-89327-365-1.
  3. Esser, Karl; Kubitzki, Klaus; Runge, Michael; Schnepf, Eberhard; Ziegler, Hubert, eds. (1984). Progress in Botany / Fortschritte der Botanik: Morphology - Physiology. p. 331. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69985-6. ISBN   978-3-642-69985-6. S2CID   39463185.
  4. Eilers, Lawrence J.; Roosa, Dean M. (1994). The Vascular Plants of Iowa: An Annotated Checklist and Natural History. University of Iowa Press. p. 36. ISBN   0-87745-463-9.