Glandular maiden fern, wax-dot maiden fern

Polypodium resiniferum Desvaux, Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. Neuesten Entdeck. Gesammten Naturk. 5: 317. 1811; Amauropelta resinifera (Desvaux) Pichi-Sermolli; Dryopteris panamensis (C. Presl) C. Christensen; Thelypteris panamensis (C. Presl) E. P. St. John.

Stems erect, (3--)5--12 mm diam. Leaves monomorphic, evergreen, clustered, (15--)25--100(--135) cm; croziers often mucilaginous. Petiole straw-colored, 2--15(--25) cm × 1--4(--6) mm, at base with brownish, ovate-lanceolate, ± glabrous scales. Blade to 110 cm, proximally with 6--12 pairs of smaller pinnae, distally tapering gradually to a pinnatifid apex. Proximal pinnae hastate or auriculate; longest (medial) pinnae 2--14(--20) × 0.4--2.5 cm, incised to within 1 mm of costa; segments 2--3 mm wide, strongly oblique and somewhat curved; veins meeting margin above sinus. Indument abaxially of hairs 0.2--0.5 mm on rachises, costae, and sometimes veins and blade tissue, also of numerous glands, these yellowish to often reddish, resinous, shiny, sessile, hemispheric; blade tissue adaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy. Sori round, medial to submarginal; indusia tan, glandular, and sparsely hairy. 2 n = 58.

Damp woods and swamps in subacid soil; 0--100 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies in the Greater Antilles; Central America; nw South America.