Wide strap fern

Polypodium latum (T. Moore) Sodiro

Stems short-creeping, to 7 mm diam. Leaves few to many, erect to arching. Petiole 5--18 cm. Blade dark green, oblong, elliptic to oblanceolate, 20--60 cm × 4--9 cm [larger], leathery; base cuneate; apex abruptly acute. Veins obvious, primary veins ± prominent, straight to slightly curved, areoles in 8--18 series between costa and margin, with free included veinlets, a percurrent veinlet often dividing some areoles further. Sori in several rows on each side of costa.

Epiphytic in tropical hammocks; 0 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

The venation of Campyloneurum latum is similar to, but more variable than, that of C . phyllitidis .

The only record in the flora is based on a collection by J. J. Soar and A. A. Eaton in December 1903 from Dade County, Florida (A. A. Eaton 1906). Extensive searches at the original collection site and many other likely locations in the southern portions of Florida have failed to turn up any plant that could be called Campyloneurum latum . The species is apparently extirpated from North America north of Mexico.