Lastrea latifrons Brack.; Aspidium latifrons (Brack.) H. Mann; Ctenitis honolulensis (Hook.) Cope!.; Dryop-·reris honolulensis (Hook.) C. Chr.; D.latifrons (Brack.) Kuntze; Nephrodium latifrons (Brack.) Hook.; Phe-gopteris honolulensis (Hook.) H. Mann; Polypodium honolulense Hook.

Common names: 'akolea

Endemic

Latin latus, broad, wide,+ frons, frond. Plants medium-sized to large. Rhizomes decumbent. Fronds to 150 cm long. Stipes adaxially rounded (on living plants), about 1/2 frond length, straw-colored, covered with short, obtuse-tipped chainlike hairs, glan-dular hairs, and fibrils that become scanty where scaly below, lower 1/3 covered with twisted, long-lanceolate, tan to dark brown scales, scales absent to sparse distally. Blades 2-to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, ovate-deltate, dark green, glabrous; rachises round (grooved on drying), densely clothed with very short chainlike hairs. Pinnae 14-20 pairs, short-stalked proximally to adnate distally, lanceo-late, basal pinnae longer, abaxial surfaces with many appressed or stalked glands; costae and costules round, densely covered with short chainlike hairs (many with glan-dular tips) and scattered thin, long, narrow, lanceolate scales. Pinnules lanceolate. Ultimate segments rectangular, slightly falcate, crenulate, tips obtuse. Veins free, with scat-tered chainlike hairs. Sori medial to marginal. Indusia present or absent; if present, variable, from large to inconspicuous.

Locally common in mesic to wet forests, mostly in dark, damp valleys, and in under-story of 'ohi'a forests, 400-1,500 m, all major islands. _

Ctenitis latifrons and C. honoiulensis were previously treated as distinct species (and even as belonging to different genera) based solely on the presence or absence of indusia, but the indusia are sometimes small to inconspicuous and some plants have exindusiate sori as well as sori with inconspicuous indu-sia. Because no other character separates the two species, they are recognized here as one.

Ctenitis latifrons, a handsome fern, is characterized by round stipes, rachises, and costae covered with short chainlike hairs, and dark green, long-lanceolate fronds.