Etymology Cambricum means from Cambria, an earlier name for Wales

Description Rhizome: creeping, branching, whitish waxy, to 5mm diam., scales lanceolate, red-brown, to 16 mm.
Frond: 30 cm high by 12 cm wide, summer dormant, new fronds late summer, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: jointed at base, straw-colored, glabrous, vascular bundles: 3 at the base, unifying upwards into an open v-shape.
Blade: pinnatifid, small fronds triangular, larger ones broadly oval, leathery or herbaceous, pale-green or yellow-green in the open, mid-green in shade, glabrous.
Pinnae: 9 to 18 pair, alternate, longest pinnae soon above the base; margins serrate; veins free, forking.
Sori: oval when young, round later, discrete, visible on the upper surface, midway between margin and midrib, on the upper half of the blade, indusium: absent, sporangia: early green, later yellow; paraphyses present, maturity: winter-spring.
Dimensionality: lowest pinnae sharply inflexed above the plane of the blade.
Phenology: emerges August-September.

Culture Habitat: on calcareous rock, mortared walls, sometimes epiphytic on oaks, often coastal. Distribution: westernmost and southern Europe, northern Africa, east to Lebanon. Hardy to USDA Zone 7 or 8.

Distinctive Characteristics Among the European species, the triangular to oval blade form is indicative, as are the long rhizome scales. The presence of paraphyses in the sorus is conclusive.

Synonyms
Polypodium australe Fee

Compare with other species in the European Group