Polypodium vulgare L. var. vulgare Common polypody

Polypodium vulgare L. var. vulgare - Common polypody

Scientific Description:

Epiphytic or saxicolous with creeping rhizome covered with brown chaffy scales. Frond linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, with 5−25 leaf lobes on each side, petiole shorter than lamina, smooth. Sori naked, circular or oval in a single row on either side of the main vein of the pinna.

 

subsp. vulgare

Veinlets of lowermost pinnae 1−2-furcate; indurated cells of annulus 10−13 in number.

 

Spores ripe June−August.

Habitat: On rocks and epiphytic in beech and conifer forest, 1100-1500 m.

 

Reference:

Davis PH (1965). Polypodium vulgare L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1: 61.

Public Description:

Polypodium vulgare, commonly known as “common polypody”, is native to throughout western Europe, Türkiye and North Africa. Like other ferns, this species does not contain flower, fruit or seed. Although it has a vascular systems as seen in flowering plants, it produces spores instead of seeds to reproduce. It has a large leaf developing from rhizome in the underground. On the lower surface of the leaves there are bright yellow to orange sporangia, microscopic structures (spores) produced in these vesicles are released into the environment and spores germinate in appropriate environmental conditions to develop new plants. The common polypody is found in shaded and semi-shaded locations which are found on old walls, cracks in rocks, the bases of trees and in rocky undergrowth.

 

References:

Anonymous 1 (2018). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypodium_vulgare,Accessed date: 06.02.2018.

Anonymous 2 (2018). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/search/?q=Polypodium+vulgare+,Accessed date: 06.02.2018.

Güner A (2012). Polypodium L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 8.