Side hill lace

 Licorice ferns, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, on old roots dangling down a dripping side hill.

With mosses and powdery lichens.

We see this fern growing mostly on mossy tree trunks, usually big-leaf maples, far above our heads, but the rhizomes can also spread over rocks. It likes vertical, mossy surfaces. Here, it's down at eye level, on a side hill cut into to make space for a narrow trail.

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Esto es helecho de regaliz, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, creciendo en unas raices viejas colgadas sobre un corte vertical en el terreno, tal corte hecho para hacer espacio para un sendero angosto. Comunmente vemos este helecho muy por encima de nuestras cabezas, creciendo en los troncos de árboles, principalmente de acer de hojas grandes, Acer macrophyllum, pero también sus rizomas pueden extenderse sobre rocas y tierra. Prefiere superficies verticales cubiertos de musgos.

Sweet root

When the rains begin and the sun goes south, it's time to tramp through the soggy woods looking for mushrooms and mosses. And licorice ferns; the wetter and cooler, the better, the ferns say.

Licorice ferns, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, on mossy fallen tree. A rainy day in September.

Usually, I see them high on a mossy big leaf maple, or in a dripping bed of moss on a cliff face. Sometimes, though, their trees come down, bearing the ferns with them. These were in the hills above the Upper Campbell Lake, on the Berry Creek logging road.

The genus name, Polypodium, means "many feet", referring to its habit of growing out from many locations along a rhizome under the moss. And glycyrrhiza, the species name, means "sweet root"; the rhizome is licorice-flavoured and sweet.