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At last, a summary of Hawaii's little known ferns, November 22, 2006
This review is from: Hawaii's Ferns and Fern Allies (Hardcover)
It is said that the most thoroughly investigated natural environment on Earth is the countryside within a day's walk of Oxford University. But the Hawaiian islands, the greatest natural history "laboratory" on Earth, are well up on that list.
Nevertheless, there is so much here to know that some sectors of the natural world have been skimped. One is the ferns, which until now have not received a comprehensive review since before World War I.
In "Hawaii's Ferns and Fern Allies," Daniel Palmer has his work cut out for him. Worldwide, many families with representatives in Hawaii have not been thoroughly studied. Here, there are quite a number of doubtful species, and considerable confusion due to misnaming or giving the same name to different species over the decades.
One endemic species, Doryopteris takeuchii, was not discovered until 1988, though its location is hardly obscure -- it grows all over Diamond Head.
Palmer, a dermatologist and tree farmer who divides his time between Hawaii and Michigan, tentatively concludes that there are 200 species of ferns and 21 allies (such as Lycopodiums) in the islands.
Unlike flowering plants, where aliens now outnumber natives, the ferns of Hawaii are almost all (85 percent) natives. Of these, nearly three-quarters are known only from these islands.
Only a handful of native ferns are thought to be extinct, but 29 species out of 144 are either rare or designated as endangered.
Most, from tiny plants that are hardly ever noticed, to tree ferns, live in wet areas, but a few species have made homes on sunburnt rocks, even at high altitudes.
Another few are aquatic, including Salvinia molesta, a floating plant that has become a serious weed, along with a small number of other imports.
Most aliens are not weedy, but the popular staghorn ferns (Platyceriums) are "potentially serious invaders of native forests." Platycerium bifurcatum was found spreading into the wild on Maui in 1991.
The Hawaiians, of course, have the longest experience with native ferns, some of which served as food, as medicine, as a source of glue for making up kapa (bark cloth, also known as tapa) and in rituals.
Curiously, though, the fern most often seen in Hawaiian cultural contexts today, Physmatosorus grossus, is an alien.
Called laua`e, this fern smells similar to maile (a fragrant native forest vine) and is used by dancers and in lei.
But Palmer says this may be a confusion. A scented plant called laua`e is referred to in old Kauai lore, but it may not even have been a fern.
William Hillebrand, who attempted to treat all known Hawaii ferns in his flora of 1888, did not include P. grossus, and the oldest example in scientific collections dates only from 1919.
Apparently, P. grossus was brought in from the South Pacific within the past century and because it happened to have an odor similar to maile, the name migrated over. The original laua`e is somewhat mysterious but ethnobotanist Puanani Anderson-Wong concluded that it was the fern Microsorum spectrum, although that native is found on all islands, not just Kauai.
M. spectrum is now known in Hawaiian as pe`ahi.
There is a fair amount of this sort of lore in Palmer's book, although the bulk of it is technical. Because both amateurs and professionals have been in need of a guide to Hawaii's ferns, Palmer designed his book to be usable by both. A variety of typographical stunts makes it easy for amateurs to find the common or garden variety information.
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