Cabbage palm fern (Phelbodium aureum) usually is found growing epiphytically on cabbage palms (Sabal palmetto), as pictured above at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area. Its deeply pinnatifid leaf blades can grown to be from 1 to 3 feet long.
Sometimes, this fern grows on rocks or in the ground …
When fertile, large round sori (the structure that contains & produced spores) are borne in rows on either side of the midrib …
Phlebos means vein in Latin, and the genus name, Phlebodium, refers to the leaf veins that are evident with a hand lens or in a closeup photo …
Aureum, the species name, refers to the golden brown scales that cover the rhizome from which this fern grows, show leafless below with drooping shoestring fern (Vittaria lineata) during a dry time …
Phlebodium aureum goes by lots of common names, including hare-foot fern, rabbit foot fern, serpent fern, and golden polypody fern. It is far more common than shoestring fern, the “other” native fern that often grows on cabbage palms.
Enjoy the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area 