Polypodium cambricum Oakleyae

Polypodium 'Whitley Giant', sometimes classified as Polypodium vulgare, seems to belong rather to Polypodium cambricum with its fine and flexible fronds. This fern develops wide, deeply divided fronds with undulate pinnae. They are arched, lanceolate, and dark green in colour. It is evergreen, vigorous, not demanding on the soil, and develops its new fronds in summer rather than in spring. Able to grow without much care almost anywhere, this polypodium will gradually colonise a semi-shaded area through its wandering rhizome, but it is never invasive. A perfect perennial to bring an original touch to a rural decoration or create a small Japanese scene.

Polypodium is part of a vast group of plants called polypod ferns, which are terrestrial, epiphytic, and even lithophytic (growing on stones), very common in the temperate northern hemisphere. They belong to the Polypodiaceae family. Polypodium Whitley Giant is a very hardy perennial, which develops from a creeping, fleshy, quite thick rhizome, covered with reddish scales, capable of spreading on very different supports such as stone, tree bark or soil. An adult plant will form a carpet of fronds about 40 cm (16 in) high, spread over an equivalent surface. The dark green foliage is composed of wide fronds, highly divided into 20 to 25 segments, confluently at the base, and distributed on either side of a slender rachis. Each pinna has an enlarged, spatulate tip subdivided into 2 to 4 lobes. The plant produces sori (small sacs containing spores) throughout the year. They take the form of small warts, 2 mm (0.1 in) in diameter, orange in colour, located on the underside of the leaves.

Among ferns from temperate zones around the world, Polypodium is certainly the easiest fern to grow. Without causing any concerns other than planting it, it has its place in the garden, to border a rural hedge or on a shaded slope where nothing grows, in the company of a pretty, variegated ivy such as 'Kolibri', for example. It can be associated with soleirolia, hostas, hydrangeas, and bush fuchsias, always in filtered light or shade. It can also create a tiny garden in a very refined Japanese spirit, by combining this Whitley Giant variety with round stones, mosses, or even with a painted Japanese fern (Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum'). If it can be established in a fertile hollow, filled with humus, between the branches of a forest tree, it will create an exotic-looking tableau, reminiscent of the luxuriance of tropical forests.