Macaronesian polypody
Polypodium macaronesicum
Family · Polypodiaceae · Harmless
The fern that lives up in the trees: it grows clamped to mossy trunks and branches in the laurisilva, and also on walls and rock faces. The sori are conspicuous orange dots on the underside.
Oak woods · Walls and rocks · Uplands · Streams and ditches
Also known asisland polypody
How to tell it
Fronds twenty to sixty centimetres, divided once into elongated segments with a nearly smooth margin, attached to a creeping scaly rhizome running visibly over bark or stone. Beneath, the sori are round, bright orange and entirely uncovered, in two rows. Range: the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries.
What it is confused with
Southern polypody
Polypodium cambricum
They are nearly identical and are told apart by where they are: the common one is mainland, the Macaronesian one belongs to the islands. Neither is dangerous.
Open sheet →What it is for
The rhizome of common polypody was used in cough syrups for its sweetish taste, and the Macaronesian one shares the family. Traditional use, in the past. It is worth more as an indicator: a trunk covered in polypody and moss is a forest trunk with constant humidity.