Common names: hoe a Miiui ("Maui's paddle"), 'ekaha Latin crassus, thick, stout, + caulis, stalk, or stem, in reference to the thick, scaly rhizomes.

Endemic

Plants medium-sized, terrestrial, occasionally epiphytic. Rhizomes short-creeping, about 2 cm diam. with scales (7-10 mm diam. without scales), appearing larger because of crowded phyllopodia, heavily clothed with scales; scales lanceolate-acuminate, small, (2-)3-5 x 1-2 mm, firm, dark brown to black, with tips usually curled over, scales partly or wholly composed of small cells with sides equal in length, irregularly arranged at least at scale tip or not, phyllopodia prominent, less than 1 em long. Stipes winged nearly to base, wings widening to become blade. Sterile blades erect, broadly oblanceolate, 35-60 X 5-8 cm, glabrous. Fertile blades narrowly oblanceolate. Veins parallel, anastomosing near margins to form a continuous commissural vein.

Common in closed-canopy mesic to wet forests, 200-1,400 m, Kaua 'i only.

Elaphoglossum crassicaule may be recog-nized by its winged stipes; parallel veins, free and forking, arising from the midrib and all joining to form a continuous vein close to and parallel with the margin; and characteristic small, stiff, black, triangular rhizome scales that usually fold over at the tips. Found only on Kaua'i, where it is the only representative of the Alatum group.