Aspidiumfilixmas Sw. var. fuscoatrum Hillebr.

Common names: 'i'i ('i'i, reddish brown) (P. & E.)

Endemic

Latin fuscus, dark, dark brown, + atra, black. The namer must have been impressed by the dark scales on this species.

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial. Rhizomes decumbent to erect. Fronds in a shuttlecock arrangement on apexes of rhizomes, 30-80 cm long. Stipes green (straw-colored when dry), densely clothed with (but not obscured by) narrow, gray to black, long-tapering scales. Blades 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 1-pinnate-pinnatisect, occasionally 2-pinnate, ovate-lanceolate to long-lanceolate, pale green below, darker green above, char-taceous; rachises adaxially grooved, straw-colored, with many linear-lanceolate, dark gray to brown to black scales. Pinnae 16-30 pairs, linear-lanceolate, lowermost pinna pair not or minimally smaller than middle pinnae. Ultimate segments elongate, slightly falcate, lateral margins entire to slightly crenate, tips truncate to obtuse, often with small teeth, segments at bases of pinnae usually not overlapping rachises. Veins unforked or often 1-forked. Sori sub-medial to medial, 1-12 per segment in rows on both sides of midrib, present on all pinnae, but sometimes sparse or absent on most proximal pinnae. Indusia firm, persistent, round.

Common in dry to wet forests, 500-2,100 m, all major islands.

Dryopterisfusco-atra, a mostly 1-pinnate fern, may be distinguished from D. walli-chiana by its narrow, tapering, very dark scales that, although plentiful on the rachis, do not obscure it. Its basal pair of pinnae are the same size or only slightly shorter than the more distal pinnae. Sori are found on all pinnae, but sometimes are sparse or absent on the lowermost pinnae. The blade is more chartaceous than that of D. wallichiana.