TREATMENT FROM THE JEPSON MANUAL	previous taxon | next taxon Jepson Interchange (more information)
	©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California Print edition is available from the University of California Press

	The second edition of The Jepson Manual (2012) is available from the University of California Press
	See also the Jepson eFlora, which parallels the Second Edition

POLYPODIACEAE

POLYPODY FAMILY

Sherry Whitmore and Alan R. Smith

Perennial, on plants, rocks, in rock crevices, less often in soil, humus, or on dunes; rhizome short- to long-creeping, branched, glaucous to not, scaly
Leaves ± alike or of 2 kinds, fertile and sterile; petiole thin to thick, straw-colored or green to brown or black, generally jointed to persistent knob on rhizome; blade generally simple to 1-pinnate, membranous to fleshy or leathery; veins free to fused, generally forked
Sporangia: sori round to elongate, rarely linear, generally 1 per areole, in 1–several rows on each side of segment midrib; indusium 0; spores generally ± elliptic, ± smooth to coarse-tubercled or -ridged, scar linear
Genera in family: ± 46 genera, ± 650 species: worldwide, especially Old World tropical. Numbers of genera, species depend on treatment; many species cultivated.