Etymology Polypodium is from the Greek: polys, many, + podion, foot. The branching rhizome and its roots appear many-footed. Others think it refers to the many stipe bases on the upper side of the stem.

Description Rhizome: creeping, branching, scales concolored to bicolored, lanceolate to ovate-acuminate, not clathrate to strongly clathrate.
Frond: evergreen, monomorphic.
Stipe: jointed at base, straw-colored, scaly or not, vascular bundles: 3.
Blade: pinnatifid, broadly ovate to deltate, leathery.
segments linear to oblong, margins entire to serrate, veins free or netted.
Sori: circular to oval, discrete, borne at tips of single veins, in 1-3 rows on either side of midrib, often confined to distal region of leaf, indusium: absent, sporangia: transparent or yellowish.

Distinctive Characteristics pinnatifid, leathery blade, long-creeping rhizome, fronds jointed to the rhizome, and the naked sori.

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