(Sw.) Christensen, Smithsonian Misc. Collect. 66 (9):3.1916

Hemiepiphytic, closely appressed climber, usuallygrow­ing from 2-4 m high on tree trunks; rhizome ofterrestrial juvenile plants slender, long-creeping, densely scaly,the scales dark reddish-brown,       linear-lanceolate,entire, extending only slightly onto petiole bases; rhizome ofclimbing leaves usually much stouter, 1.5-4.5 cm diam, denselycovered with very slender, curly, light reddish­brown scales1-2 cm or more long, the rootlets long and slender on the sidenearest tree, these covered with short, stiff, threadlike scales.Leaves of juvenile plant similar to adult but smaller, to 1 m long;lowermost epiphytic leaves to 50 cm long; adult leaves dimorphic,3-pinnate-­pinnatifid to 4-pinnate; sterile blades to ca 1.5 mlong, the petioles ± glabrous except for sparsely scaly base,deeply channeled on upper side, this channel extendingthrough­out upper surface of rachis, pinnular rachis, andtertiary rachis, the canaliculate part densely pubescent except onpetiole; pinnae triangular, acuminate; secondary divisions to ca 10cm long, acuminate and sharply serrate at apex, increasingly moredeeply lobed toward base, glabrous except for minute puberulence ontertiary rachis and lower part of midrib of leaflets, the lobes± oblique, sharply serrate toward apex, the lowermost lobesnar­rowly obovate, free, or with a minute strip of             chloro­phylloustissue along the pinnular rachis. Fertile leaves smaller thansterile leaves, wholly or only partially fertile (if partial, thebasal parts fertile); petioles to 25 cm long; blades triangular,60-80 cm long, borne above sterile leaves; lowermost pinnae to 25cm long, the leaflets with small, ± rounded lobes each with aprominent free-­ending veinlet and with a single sorus onlower surface. Sori round,     1-1.5 mm diam,the indusium round, mark­edly undulate, attached on one sidewith an inconspicuous sinus at point of attachment. Croat9535.

Occasional, on trees, especially in deep ravines.All fertile plants were collected from August to October. Thisspecies is distinguished from Polybotrya villosula by its three -or four -pinnate leaves and small leaflets (1-3 cm).

Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama; Jamaica andCuba. In Panama, known only from tropical moist forest on BCI andfrom premontane wet forest in Panama (Cerro Campana).