Pleopeltis thunbergiana Kaulf.; Drynaria elongata (Kaulf.) Brack.; Pleopeltis elongata Kaulf.; P. linearis (Thunb.) T. Moore; P. nuda Hook.; Polypodium atropunctatum Gaudich.; Po. lineare Thunb.; Po. nudum (Hook.) Kunze; Po. thunbergianum (Kaulf.) C. Chr.

Common names: pakahakaha, 'ekaha 'akolea, pua'akuhinia (P. & E.)

Indigenous                          

Name honors Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), Swedish botanist and plant collector who traveled and collected extensively in Japan and Java, as well as the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Plants small; epiphytic, epipetric, or terrestrial. Rhizomes short-creeping, bearing phyllo-podia. Fronds in tufts, 6-35 cm long x 0.6-1.5(-2) cm wide at widest part. Stipes short, becoming winged and blending into blades; scales at bases small, lanceolate, dark brown. Blades simple, Linear-lanceolate, thick, coriaceous, usually naked, margins entire, gradually tapering at both ends, adaxial surface somewhat shiny, dark green, abaxial surface dull, light green. Sori round or oblong, up to 2 mm diam., medial, alternate in single rows on either side of costae, covered by peltate paraphyses that become dark and deciduous on older fronds.

Common epiphyte on trees and rocks in dry land, to mesic, to wet forests, 10-2,100 m, all major islands.

Also native to China, the Philippines, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. In previous publications this species was often placed in the similar New World genus Pleopeltis Willd.

Lepisoros thunbergianus, a common clus-tered fern, grows on trees and rocks and may be recognized by its small, simple, linear-lanceolate, short-stalked, leathery, strap-shaped fronds with entire margins, and round or slightly oblong sori. Each sorus is covered by many umbrella-shaped para-physes. These are light colored when young, but become dark and eventually fall off.