Pteris decipiens Hook.; Doryopteris decora Brack. var. decipiens (Hook.) R. M. Tryon; D. pedata sensu Brack., non (L.) Fee; Litobrochia decipiens (Hook.) T. Moore; Pteris pedata sensu Hook. & Am., non Willd.

Common names: kumuniu, 'iwa 'iwa, manawahua

Endemic

Latin decipiens, deceiving, a word used when one species closely resembles another.

Plants small to medium-sized. Rhizomes decumbent, retaining old stipes. Fronds up to 30 cm long. Stipes round or not, or minimally ridged, up to 1.3 mm in. diam., deep purple to black, lustrous, naked. Blades 1-pinnate-pinnatisect to 2-pinnate, triangular to subtriangular, 3-15 x 3.5-17 cm, coriaceous, glabrous, pinnae mostly adnate; rachises usually entirely winged between first and second pinna pairs, distance between first and second pairs about same as that between second and third. Pinnae opposite, 3-6 pairs, sessile. Ultimate segments triangular or falcate, not parallel-sided, lobed, usually 4-6 mm wide at bases, tapering toward obtuse tips.

Common in dry shrub lands, grasslands, and forests, often growing on exposed basalt, 30-915 m, all major islands and Ni'ihau, Lehua, and Kaho'olawe.

Doryopteris decipiens may be distinguished by its triangular blades flat in one plane, rachises usually completely winged between the 2 lowest pinna pairs, and ulti-mate segments somewhat triangular and tapering toward rounded tips.