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Species library › Phlebodium › Phlebodium aureum
Ferns Well documented

Phlebodium aureum

The golden polypody, a tropical American fern with a thick, furry, creeping rhizome and large blue-green to green deeply lobed fronds. In the wild it is chiefly an epiphyte on palms, so it does best with a fast-draining medium, bright indirect light and steady moisture.

Phlebodium aureum
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

Grows epiphytically on palm trunks, especially cabbage palms in Florida, and on other trees and rocks in humid tropical and subtropical forest and hammocks.

Recorded at 5–2546 m, median about 945 m; Florida populations are near sea level, South American ones reach montane forest.

Florida and the southeastern United StatesCaribbeanVenezuela, Colombia and the GuianasBrazilNortheastern Argentina

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 3.0 licence, unmodified.