14 December 2010

Rusty hedge

 
I have noticed that during spells of cold, dry weather, the stems of the polypody ferns are twisted so that the orange-coloured sporangia (spore-bearing structures attached to the underside of the leaf blade) face upwards to the air, which must assist spore dispersal during these favourable conditions. The roadside wall on Cwmbach Road, between Swansea and Waunarlwydd, has a very robust population of what may be the hybrid Manton's Polypody (Polypodium interjectum x P. vulgare = P. x mantoniae).

1 comment:

Barry Stewart said...

Confirmed microscopically as Manton's Polypody