Common name: Maile-scented fern
Family name: Polypody ferns (Polypodiaceae)
Hawaiian name: Laua'e, which means "beloved" or "sweet" according to its fragrance.
Pohnpeian name: Uluhl en kieil
Kosraean name: Fah
Chuukese name: Chichi (in the Mortlocks)
Yapese name: Gob
Location collected: found near the Agriculture building at COM-FSM, Palikir.
Habitat: Grows on rocks, trees, or the forest floor. It can also grow beside saltwater beaches and shady moist forest.
Frond description: The leaves are loped shaped, dimpled on the underside by spore clusters. The fronds are fewer (2 or 3) according to its nutrients, but can have more fronds if the nutrients around it is good. It is describe as a creeping rhizome. When the plant is young, the fronds are undivided and then in a mature plant the fronds develope into lobes, that can 2 to 3 feet long.
Specimen collected and web page created by: Duane Yamaguchi, October 1998.
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