Polypodium vulgare

Polypodium vulgare grows wild across the temperate woodlands and rocky outcrops of Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia, and parts of South Africa, where its creeping rhizome anchors to mossy tree trunks, old stone walls, and shaded boulders. The lance-shaped fronds rise singly along the surface-running rhizome — each deeply pinnate with rounded lobes — and turn the undersides of mature fronds golden in late summer as the sori ripen, which earned the plant its old name 'golden polypody'. As an epiphyte that also grows on rock, it asks for very little substrate: a thin layer of moisture-retentive moss or leaf litter over a free-draining base is enough. It is a cool-temperate species rather than a tropical one, tolerating near-freezing winters and resenting prolonged warmth, so in a terrarium it does best in a cool, shaded setup with steady humidity and good airflow.