Crossword clues for polypodium
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Polypodium \Pol"y*po`di*um\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, dim. of ?. See Polyp, and cf. 2d Polypode.] (Bot.) A genus of plants of the order Filices or ferns. The fructifications are in uncovered roundish points, called sori, scattered over the inferior surface of the frond or leaf. There are numerous species.
Wiktionary
n. (context botany English) Any of the genus ''Polypodium'' of ferns.
Wikipedia
Polypodium is a genus of 75–100 species of true ferns, widely distributed throughout the world, with the highest species diversity in the tropics. The name is derived from Ancient Greek poly (πολύ) "many" + podion (πόδιον) "little foot", on account of the foot-like appearance of the rhizome and its branches. They are commonly called polypody or rockcap fern, but for many species unique vernacular names exist.
They are terrestrial or epiphytic ferns, with a creeping, densely hairy or scaly rhizome bearing fronds at intervals along its length. The species differ in size and general appearance and in the character of the fronds, which are evergreen, persisting for 1-2 years, pinnate or pinnatifid (rarely simple entire), and from 10-80 cm or more long. The sori or groups of spore-cases ( sporangia) are borne on the back of the frond; they are globose and naked, not covered with a membrane (indusium).
Polypodies have some use in herbalism, but are today most important in horticulture where several species, hybrids, and their cultivars like Polypodium 'Green Wave' are commonly used as ornamental plants for shady locations. Polypodium have a bitter-sweet taste and are among the rather few ferns that are used in cooking; in this case as a spice e.g. for nougat.
Usage examples of "polypodium".
And lower down the great forest trees arch over it, and the sunbeams trickle through them, and dance in many a quiet pool, turning the far-down sands to gold, brightening majestic tree-ferns, and shining on the fragile polypodium tamariscinum which clings tremblingly to the branches of the graceful waringhan, on a beautiful lygodium which adorns the uncouth trunk of an artocarpus, on glossy ginger-worts and trailing yams, on climbers and epiphytes, and on gigantic lianas which, climbing to the tops of the tallest trees, descend in vast festoons, many of them with orange and scarlet flowers and fruitage, passing from tree to tree, and interlacing the forest with a living network, while selaginellas and lindsayas, and film ferns, and trichomanes radicans drape the rocks in feathery green, along with mosses scarcely distinguishable from ferns.
But if you ask Polypodium calcareum--How is it you choose only to grow on limestone, while Polypodium Dryopteris, of which, I suspect, you are only a variety, is ready to grow anywhere?