''Microsorum scolopendria'',
synonym ''Phymatosorus scolopendria'',
[ commonly called monarch fern, musk fern, maile-scented fern, breadfruit fern, or wart fern is a species of fern within the family ]Polypodiaceae
Polypodiaceae is a family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the family includes around 65 genera and an estimated 1,650 species and is placed in the order Polypodiales, suborder Polypodiineae. A broade ...
. This fern grows in the wild in the Western Pacific rim from Australia to New Caledonia to Fiji and throughout the South Pacific to French Polynesia.
It was introduced in Hawaii in the late 1910s and has subsequently naturalized rapidly. It is found on all main islands. Its Hawaiian name ''lauaʻe''[ is thought to have originally referred to the native fern '']Microsorum spectrum
''Microsorum'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Microsoroideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The species are tropical. Like most ferns, they grow from rhizomes, rath ...
''.
The scientific name ''M. scolopendria'' has been misapplied to ''Microsorum grossum
''Microsorum'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Microsoroideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The species are tropical. Like most ferns, they grow from rhizomes, rat ...
'' (and their synonyms in ''Phymatosorus'').
Uses
When crushed, the fern issues a scent similar to maile. Sometimes, pieces of the fern are interlaced in leis made of strung-up keys (individual drupes
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
) of the pandanus fruit.
kapa
Kapa is a fabric made by native Hawaiians from the bast fibres of certain species of trees and shrubs in the orders Rosales and Malvales.
Description and uses
It is similar to ''tapa'' found elsewhere in Polynesia (the Hawaiian phoneme corr ...
fabric.
Folklore
Expanses of the fern famously grows in Makana on Kauaʻi, and is commemorated in song.[
]
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
*
*
External links
* Gustafson, Robert, 1939- Hawaiian plant life : vegetation and flora Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2014.
* Valier, Kathy, 1953- Ferns of Hawai`i Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1995
* http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/hawaiiflowers/Pages/viewtext.php?s=browse&tid=252 Plants for Hawaiian lei: Laua'e
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15248487, from2=Q3027867, from3=Q38239691
Polypodiaceae