Southern polypody
Polypodium cambricum
Family · Polypodiaceae · Harmless
The fern that grows on top of walls and tree trunks without taking anything from them, and does the opposite of all the others: it dries up in summer and comes back in September, when the rain starts.
Walls and rocks · Oak woods · Uplands · Streams and ditches
Also known asWelsh polypody, limestone polypody
How to tell it
A frond divided only once, into elongated alternate lobes along a green axis, looking like a broad comb. Beneath, round orange dots in neat rows, which are the spore cases. A creeping rhizome covered in brown scales, visible on the stone.
What it is confused with
Western black spleenwort
Asplenium onopteris
Polypody has a frond divided only once, into broad comb-like lobes; western black spleenwort has a frond divided three times, lace-like.
What it is for
The rhizome tastes sweet and was chewed and used in syrups in European folk medicine, which gave it the name sweet fern. It is not a parasite: it uses the tree or wall as a perch and feeds on rain and the matter gathered in the crack.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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