Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Pteridophyte Literature for Asplenium macraei
Palmer, 2003; Brown & Brown, 1931; Brownsey, 1998; Lorence & Wagner, 2019.
   Aspleniaceae -- The Spleenwort Family Bibliography
      Asplenium macraei

Common name(s): spleenwort, `iwa`iwa lau li`i
General Information
DistributionHawaiian Islands, Samoa, and the Marquesas Islands.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. Also in Marquesas Islands.















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
HabitatMesic to wet forests
Elevation420-1830 m
Habit
 Terrestrial. Rhizomes suberect, with 5–14 fronds clustered at apex, scales of rhizome and stipe base 0.8 mm long, 0.3 mm wide, ovate-oblong, brown, margin subentire.
Leaves
 Fronds erect, 9–11.5 cm long, never proliferous; stipe, 6–10 mm long, adaxially flattened, dull brown, 0.3–0.5 mm in diameter near base, with narrow, thin, greenish wings on either side of adaxial surface; blade 1– to 2-pinnate, narrowly oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 8–10.5 cm long, 1.5–2.2 cm wide at middle, reduced at base, tapering to pinnatifid non-conform apex, chartaceous, glabrate or with sparse, short brown hairlike scales on petiole, rachis and sometimes abaxial surface of pinnae, rachis green, winged as on stipe, pinnae 12–15 on a side, sessile or short-stalked, 3–11 mm long, 3–6 mm wide, ovate-oblong to triangular-ovate, apex acute to obtuse, basiscopic margin entire or with 1–3 deep lobes, acroscopic margin of proximal and middle pinnae deeply 1–3-lobed, teeth acute, often deeply incised into a cuneate basal lobe parallel to main rachis; veins radiating in fanshaped fashion from bases of pinnules, forking 1–3 times, ending before margin.
Sori
 Sori 2-6 per pinna, oblong, 1-1.5 mm long, usually medial on lobes; indusium thin, scarious.
Notes
 This rare, diminutive species is referable to Asplenium macraei from the Hawaiian Islands (Palmer 2003), but Marquesan plants differ in their smaller size, fronds with green rachises, and fewer and less divided pinnae.
Contributor
 David Lorence