The Nikon MicroscopyU confocal microscopy image gallery was created with a PCM-2000 confocal scanning system interfaced to a Nikon Eclipse E600 upright microscope. Images were recorded in successive z-axis serial sections with C-Imaging Systems software with excitation illumination provided by an argon-ion and/or a helium-neon laser.

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When hearing about a rabbit's foot, licorice, and resurrection, ferns are not usually the first things to come to mind, unless one is interested in the Polypodium, a fern genus found primarily in the New World. Mostly epiphytes (plants growing above the ground, but supported nonparasitically by another plant or object), these ferns are often found growing from tree trunks and limbs, but sometimes on rocks or even dry ground.

The rabbit's foot fern, Polypodium aurem, a native from Florida to Argentina, gets its name from its "furry" thick, creeping rhizome that is covered with golden-brown scales. Young fronds grow from the rhizomes and can reach a height of four feet with a two-foot spread. Like other true ferns, Polypodium species can also reproduce via spores with a separation of the male and female reproductive organs on different parts of the frond.

The licorice fern, P. glycyrrhiza, is an epiphyte that grows on the trunks and branches of deciduous trees in low-elevation, moist forests. It gets its common name from the licorice-flavored rhizome. The common polypody, P. vulgare, is found on shady rocks, in woods, and mountainous areas throughout the United States and enjoys a long history of medicinal uses from Native Americans to modern herbalists. The rhizome of the polypody is claimed to help eliminate parasitic "worms", act as a purgative, and help in treating pulmonary and hepatic diseases. A West Indian cousin, P. adiantiforme is regarded as an antisyphilitic while the Central American fern, P. friedrichsthalianum reportedly possesses similar virtues plus acts as a remedy against the bite of the toboba, a Mexican insect.

The resurrection fern, Polypodium polypodioides, is an epiphyte on the branches of forest trees from Delaware to southern Illinois, south to Texas and Florida and throughout tropical America (also native to southern Africa). In the southeastern United States, resurrection fern is often found on the spreading branches of old live oaks. Despite appearances, this fern is not a parasite, but rather derives its water and nutrients from rain and dust. This small fern is sometimes sold in gift shops and via ads on the backs of comic books as the mail order "miracle plant."