Blechnum souleyetianum Gaudich.; Sadleria souleyetiana f. brevisora Hochr.

Common names: 'ama 'u, ma 'u, ma 'uma 'u, pua 'a 'ehu'ehu (red pig), 'iima'uma'u Name honors Jean Andre Souliei (1858-1900), French Roman Catholic priest, missionary to Tibet, and enthusiastic botanical and zoological collector.

Endemic

Plants medium-sized to large. Rhizomes erect to decumbent, thick. Fronds erect, 50-350 cm long. Stipes grooved, tan, naked except near bases where thickly covered with a mat of scales resembling wet tissue paper; scales broad, thin, paperlike, tan, sometimes with dark central area at base, not glandular. Blades 1-pinnate-pinnatisect to 2-pinnate at bases of larger pinnae, lanceo-late-ovate. Pinnae widest in middle. Ultimate segments (40-)60-90 pairs per pinna, linear-falcate, 1.8-3.3 cm long, basiscopic basal segments often enlarged, pinnatifid, and overlying rachis, or not, to minimally enlarged. Veins translucent in living mate-rial, visible as dark or raised lines on dried specimens, ending in hydathodes short of segment margins.

Occasional in closed-or open-canopied mesic to wet forests, 400-1 ,550 m, all major islands. Once thought to be uncommon, probably because this species was not readily recognized in the field. Previous checklists and publications emphasized the often enlarged, pinnatifid basal basiscopic segments that overlie the rachises. This feature may or may not be present and was lacking on the type illustration for this species. It is also found, but to a lesser degree, on S. pallida.

Sadleria souleyetiana may be recognized by distinctive tan mats of scales, resembling wet tissue paper, at stipe bases; by its large, falcate segments, usually numbering 60-90 per pinna; and by translucent veins that do not touch the segment margins. The basiscopic basal pinna segments are often enlarged, and pinnatifid.