Endemic

Latin nudus, bare or naked, in reference to the general lack of scales in this variety.

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial. Stipes brownish below, lighter above, extending into straw-colored rachises, more than 2.5-4 mm diam. at bases. Blades 3-pinnate to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, never 4-pinnate, glabrous, triangular-ovate, up to 25-30 cm long, chartaceous, dull, medium to dark green, rachises straw-colored to dark brown. Pinnae short-stalked, broadly unequally triangular to lanceolate, widest at bases, nearly touching to overlapping, lowest pinnae to 13 x 10 cm. Pinnules nearly touching to overlapping. Ultimate segments mostly 3-6 mm wide, elongate, close together, tips obtuse or with 1 small tooth, margins entire, shallowly crenate to lobed, lobes rounded or with small teeth at tips, margins often upcurved in living plants. Sori medial to submarginal, often borne singly at bases of sinuses.

Terrestrial, frequent in scattered locations, usually at 475-1,310 m, on Kaua'i, O'ahu, Moloka'i, and Maui. Usually in mesic to wet woods and at forest edges and especially common in the Wai'anae Mountains of O'ahu.

This variety has been recognized as a species, as a variety, or deemed not worthy of recognition by various authors. The extreme form of this variety described here blends gradually into var. glabra in and at the margins of its areas of distribution. Dryopteris glabra var. nuda has broader ultimate segments and coarser fronds than all the other varieties except var. alboviridis.