Common names: 'oali (P. & E.), Cretan brake

Indigenous

Latin creticus, of Crete.

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial. Rhizomes short-creeping. Fronds 17-90 x 15-30 em. Stipes 1/2 or more frond length, straw-colored, glabrous except for a few light brown scales at base. Blades 1-pinnate (basal pinnae forked into 2 subequal branches), ovate or ovate-oblong, light green, chartaceous, glabrous, tips of terminal pinnae similar to and about equal in length to lateral pinnae; rachises unwinged or winged only toward tips. Pinnae 3-5 pairs, subopposite to alternate, linear-lanceolate, short-stalked to adnate, entire, basal pinnae divided into almost equal branches, more distal pinnae unbranched, decurrent on upper 1/4 of rachis or not, mar-gins nearly entire to finely dentate. Coenosori continuous along most of pinna margins. Indusia thin.

Locally common in dry to mesic areas, 340-2,450 m, all major islands.

Widely distributed in rural areas and found in gulches and lava tubes at its upper range as well as in remote areas on Haleakala. Pteris cretica is widely distributed in temperate and tropical parts of the world and is probably native to the Old World.

Pteris cretica may be distinguished by its 1-pinnate fronds with the basal pinnae forked into 2 subequal branches.