Beaded cuplet fern

Polypodium globuliferum Poiret in Lamarck et al., Encycl. 5: 554. 1804

Stems long-creeping, 3--10 mm diam. Leaves clustered to well separated to distant, erect or arching, 2--3 × (1--)2(--3) m. Petiole yellowish to brown throughout, lustrous, ca. 1/3 length of blade, sparsely pubescent with soft, jointed hairs. Blade green, dull, ovate to deltate, 3(--4)-pinnate, nearly as wide as long, base truncate, apex acute, with reddish jointed hairs on veins abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Basal segments of pinnules alternate; ultimate segments ovate to elliptic, base ± equilateral, margins lobed ca. 1/2 distance to midrib. Sori globose; indusia globose. Spores trilete, strongly 3-lobed, surface coarsely verrucose. 2 n = ca. 94.

Sporulates summer. Moist caves or sinks; 300--500 m; Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

The tropical Dennstaedtia globulifera and D . bipinnata are among the largest ferns in the flora. In the flora Dennstaedtia globulifera is found only in Val Verde County, Texas.