Polypodium saffordii Maxon; Grammitis saffordii (Maxon) C. V. Morton; Polypodium minimum Brack. (illegitimate name, P. minimum previously taken); P. serrulatum sensu Hillebr., non (Sw.) Mett.; P. serrulaturn var. latum Luerss.; Xiphopteris saffordii (Maxon) Copel.

Common names: kihe

Endemic     

Name honors William Edwin Safford (1859-1926), American botanist and conchologist, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served in the U.S. Navy from 1880 to 1902, was vice-governor of Guam 1899-1900, and joined the scientific staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1902. Safford published many papers on the botany and ethnobotany of Guam, and on the Chamorro language.

Rhizomes small, decumbent to erect, short to 3 mm diam. Stipes inconspicuous, clustered on rhizomes, with wings blending into blades, scales at base stiff, lanceolate, dark. Blades linear, lobed, 2.5-12.5 cm x 2-4 mm, medium green, chartaceous, lobes oblique, pointing distally, midribs dark, hairs sharp-tipped, short, translucent to tan, scattered on abaxial costae and veins and on margins, glands absent. Sori oblong to short-linear, medial, confined to distall 1/4-2/3 offronds, mature sori often appearing to coalesce into a long coenosorus, filling abaxial surface.

Common epiphyte in cloudy rain forests and bogs, 900-1,800 m, all major islands.

Lellingeria saffordii may easily be rec-ognized by its small, simple fronds that are deeply lobed in the sterile basal portion, with the fertile distal 1/4-2/3 having margins nearly entire and undersurfaces almost entirely covered with sori.

Reference: Smith et al. (1991).