Synonym(s): Lastrea globulifera Brack.; Aspidium globuliferum (Brack.) H. Mann; Dryopteris globulifera (Brack.) Kuntze; Nephrodium globuliferum (Brack.) Hook.; Thelypteris globulifera (Brack.) C. F. Reed

Common names: palapalai a Kamapua 'a (Kamapua'a's fern)

Endemic

Latin globus, globe, sphere, + fero, bear, carry, referring to the globose glands on the blades.

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial. Rhizomes decumbent to erect, clothed in old stipes. Fronds 40-140 cm long. Stipes clothed with white, single-celled hairs, sparsely scaly at base, short, 1/6-1/10 frond length. Blades oblanceolate, tapering at both ends, abaxial surface with many glistening, amber-colored, appressed glands, fewer glands adaxially, both surfaces with white, unicellular hairs, especially over veins; rachises grooved, with abundant, very short (0.4-1 mm long), curved, white, sharp-tipped hairs. Pinnae 20-50 pairs, lower 6-18 pairs gradually diminishing in size to basal pinnae as small as 2 mm long; costae grooved ad-axially, bearing many very fine hairs as on rachises. Veins free, not anastomosing below sinuses. Sori submarginal to marginal. Indusia small, kidney-shaped, margins lined with many appressed glands and scattered, uni-cellular hairs.

Locally common, usually found in moist habitats and especially near streams and waterfalls, 100-2,200 m, all major islands.

Amauropelta globulifera may be easily recognized by the gradual reduction in size of many lower pinnae until the most basal pairs are only small tags (it is the only Hawaiian fern with this characteristic), and by the presence of many glands on the undersurfaces of the fronds. The lower pinnae of Pneumatopteris hudsoniana are abruptly reduced in size. Christella dentata has fewer lower pinnae reduced, and the most basal pinnae remain much larger than those of A. globulifera.