Cibotium glaucum (Sm.) Hook. & Am. var. nealiae Hatheway

Common names: hapu 'u

Endemic

Name honors Marie Catherine Neal (1889-1965), malacologist, phycologist-, botanist at the Bishop Museum, and author of In Gar-dens of Hawaii.

Caudices short, stubby, 0.5-1 m tall, around 18+ cm in diam. Fronds to 6 m long. Stipes dark purple with prominent white, linear aerophores on both sides when in shade, tan with inconspicuous aerophores when in sunlight, naked except for wooly mass of golden or mustard-colored hairs (composed of alternately flattened cells) at extreme bases. Blades coriaceous. Pinna sinuses wide-angled, cut 1/3-2/3 to costae. Ultimate segments 5-9.5 mm wide, apexes obtuse, abaxial surfaces glaucous with minute tan, raised dots and short and long, tan, arachnoid hairs (minute stellate hair clusters) best seen with a 10x lens (often ab-sent on older fronds or older herbarium sheets), adaxial surfaces darker green with prominent yellow veins (more prominent on dried speci-mens). Veins usually quite prominent.

Locally abundant in mesic to wet forests, 135-1,300 m, Kaua'i only.

Cibotium nealiae may be recognized in the field by its usually short, thick caudices; naked stipes except at the very base where they are covered with wooly, usually golden hairs; moderately light bluish gray segment undersurfaces clothed with many minute tan, raised dots and long and short, tan cobwebby (arachnoid) hairs; wide ultimate segments with wide and shallow sinuses; and often prominent veins on the upper surfaces of the ultimate segments. The stipes of shaded plants are often dark purple, accentuating the linear white lines on their sides.