Blechnumfontanesianum Gaudich.; B. kaulfttssianum Gaudich.; Woodwardia cyatheoides (Kaulf.) Mett.

Common names: 'ama 'u, rna 'u, ma 'uma 'u, pua 'a 'ehu 'ehu (red pig), 'lima 'uma 'u

Endemic

Cyathea, a tree-fern genus, + Greek -aides, resembling, probably alluding to a similarity in habit to tree ferns.

Plants medium-sized. Rhizomes decumbent to erect, branching, thick, up to 4 m long, occasionally forming caudices to 3.5 m tall, apexes with "skirts" of dead fronds. Fronds erect, 55-300 cm long. Stipes grooved, straw-colored, naked except at base, scales linear-triangular, tan to brown, mostly uniformly 1-colored, soft, tapering to a long, curly, often torn, hairlike tip, not glandular. Blades 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate at bases of arger pinnae. Pinnae upper surface dark green and glossy, lower surfaces light colored. Ultimate segments 30-63 pairs per pinna, seldom fewer than 35, linear-oblong to falcate, 0.6-1.7 cm long, basiscopic basal segments not enlarged and overlapping rachises, tips often pointed, not glandular. Veins obscure except distal 1/8, tips ending in clublike hydathodes, obscured by abaxial epidermal thickening, vein tips not touching margins.

Common terrestrial fern in exposed habitats, mesic and wet forests and shrublands, and a primary invader of new lava flows, (5-)75-2,200 m, all major islands.

Sadleria cyatheoides may be recognized by its straw-colored stipes, glabrous except at the base, where they are clothed with brown to dark brown, 1-colored, soft, linear-triangular scales that taper to long, hairlike tips. The ultimate segments, usually numbering 35-60 per pinna, have dark green, glossy upper surfaces and light-colored undersurfaces with a thick-ened epidermis that nearly obscures the veins.