Plants epiphytic. Stems creeping, branched, not whitish pruinose, 8–30 mm diam.; scales concolored, lanceolate, not clathrate, glabrous, margins dentate. Leaves monomorphic, widely spaced, not conspicuously narrowed at tip, to 130 cm. Petiole articulate to stem, dark brown, round in cross section, with 2 adaxial grooves. Blade ovate to elliptic, not pectinate, pinnatisect with broadly winged rachises and rounded sinuses, with fewer than 20 pairs of segments, glaucous, usually glabrous, scales absent; rachis glabrous. Segments linear to lanceolate, margins entire, apex rounded. Veins free near margins, well developed near costae, highly reticulate, usually with 1 row of costal areoles extending from vein to vein without included veinlets, and with a series of elongate, polygonal areoles with 1–3 excurrent included veinlets meeting at apices, and similar areoles closer to margin of segment mostly without included veinlets. Sori on veins, transverse, 2 in each major areole on included veinlets, circular to oblong; indument absent. Spores tuberculate. x = 37.

Distribution

Tropical regions, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

Discussion

Species 2–4 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

Duncan, W. H. 1954. Polypodium aureum in Florida and Georgia. Amer. Fern J. 44: 155--158.

Lellinger, D. B. 1987. Nomenclatural notes on some ferns of Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. III. Amer. Fern J. 77: 101--102.

Proctor, G. R. 1985. Ferns of Jamaica. London.

Snyder, L. H. Jr. and J. G. Bruce. 1986. Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia. Athens, Ga.

Lower Taxa

Phlebodium aureum