Golden Polypody, Cabbage Palm Fern

Phlebodium aureum (L.) J. Sm.

fleh-BO-dee-um OR-ee-um

Ferns

Explanation of name: Diminutive form of the Greek phlebos, meaning vein (FNA). Aureum means golden in reference to the gold-colored scales covering the rhizome.

Synonym: Polypodium aureum

Natural range: Florida to Argentina and the West Indies (HUX, FNA)

Natural habitat: Epiphytic fern seen most often in the boots of palms, especially Sabal palmetto (Cabbage Palms) or on logs in hammocks and wet swamps (NE5)

Recognition: Relatively large, bright green to blue-green, deeply pinnatifid leaf blades. Rhizomes thick, creeping and densely covered in golden-brown scales. Golden Polypody also has fairly distinctive large, round, superficial sori that are borne in rows on either side of the midrib (NE5, HUX). These are also a golden color. It could be mistaken for Wart Fern (Phymatosorus scolopendria), but differs by its epiphytic rather than terrestrial habit, wider leaf blade segments and golden-brown rather than blackish-brown scales on the rhizome.

Landscape uses: Golden Polypody is a common native fern seen hanging from the boots of Cabbage Palms. It is easily propagated via airborne spores, and can become a pest in hanging baskets or in nurseries with overhead irrigation, but Golden Polypody is quite welcome in a native Florida garden or in a relaxed, informal garden setting. If no Golden Polypodies have taken up residence  in your Cabbage Palms yet, simply tuck a young plant or a rhizome division into the bases of the old palm fronds and keep it moist until it is established.