Polypodium californicumKaulf.

California Polypody

WFO wfo-0001109240 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Polypodium californicum, photographed by velodrome
fig. a velodrome, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-15 / obs. 201714366
Polypodium californicum, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. b Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194318203
Polypodium californicum, photographed by James C. Davis
fig. c James C. Davis, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187805074
Polypodium californicum, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. d Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191422531
Polypodium californicum, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. e Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183796644
Polypodium californicum, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. f Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191422123
Polypodium californicum, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. g Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181603007
Polypodium californicum, photographed by James C. Davis
fig. h James C. Davis, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 184256661

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Goniophlebium californicum (Kaulf.) T.Moore
  • Goniophlebium cambricum var. kaulfusii Farw.
  • Goniophlebium cambricum var. kaulfussii Farw.
  • Marginaria californica C.Presl
  • Polypodium californicum f. branscombii C.V.Morton
  • Polypodium californicum f. parsonsiae C.V.Morton
  • Polypodium californicum var. californicum
  • Polypodium californicum var. kaulfussii D.C.Eaton
  • Polypodium vulgare subsp. californicum (Kaulf.) Hultén
  • Polypodium vulgare var. kaulfussii (D.C.Eaton) Fernald

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.