Synonym(s): Stibasia douglasii C. Presl; Gymnotheca douglasii (C. Presl) T. Moore; Marattia alata Hook. & Am.

Common names: pala, kapua'ilio (lio, horse, + kapua 'i, foot)

Endemic                       

Name honors David Douglas ( 1798-1834 ), a Scottish botanist who collected plants in North America, China, and Hawai 'i and intro-duced many American plants into Europe. He collected plants in Hawai'i from 1832 to 1834. He died under mysterious circumstances while collecting on the island of Hawai'i.

Plants medium-sized to large, terrestrial. Rhizomes form caudices up to 55 cm tall, 8-25 cm diam., covered with large, fleshy stipules, pulvini (swollen stipe bases) at bases. Fronds 90-270 cm long. Stipes smooth, scales scattered on bases of stipes and stipules, these ovate-lanceolate, tan to dark brown. Blades 3-to 4-pinnate, 2-pinnate distally, deltate to ovate-oblong, dark green, fleshy. Pinnae stalked, pulvini at bases (often inconspicuous on dried specimens). Ultimate segments short-stalked, ovate or oblong, margins serrate, tips blunt. Veins free, 1-to 3-forked. Synangia marginal to submarginal, linear along veins, 1.2-2 em long, 4-6 compartments on each side.

An infrequent, but occasionally locally common, fern of mesic to wet forests, often on stream banks, 425-2,070 m, all major islands. Apparently more common in the past, but the extent of its earlier distribution is unknown. A favorite food of wild pigs, the plant often survives where there are few pigs or on banks inaccessible to them.

The pala fern had many uses, and much symbolism, in old Hawai 'i. Its fleshy stipules (a feature unique among native Hawaiian ferns) and rhizomes are full of starch and mucilage and were baked in imu and eaten by the Hawaiians in times of famine. The mucilaginous material obtained from cut, oaked, raw stipes was used as a treatment for bronchial and intestinal problems and as a laxative. Pieces of the frond were inter-woven with maile (Alyxia oliviformis) in lei to enhance their appearance and fragrance. The fronds were one of the decorations of the crossbar of the akua loa (the pole carried at the annual makahiki harvest festival bearing a carved image of the head of Lono), where it symbolized the threat of starvation. When the kapu (taboo) associated with the maka-hiki was released from each ahupua 'a (land section) the maka'ainana (commoners) gathered pala fern to carry on their backs to signal this release. Pala was also used to decorate heiau (temples) during ceremonies.

Marattia douglasii is separated from all other native ferns by the presence oflarge fleshy stipules, swollen stipe bases, and synangia (groups offused sporangia). The aggressive naturalized Angiopteris evecta shares these characters, but it is very large and very different.