| Pteridophyte | Literature for Asplenium nidus
Palmer, 2003. |
| Aspleniaceae -- The Spleenwort Family | Bibliography |
| Asplenium nidus | |
Common name(s): spleenwort, `akaha, `ekaha, `ekaha kuahiwi, `ekahakaha, bird's nest fern |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia, tropical Asia, and tropical Australia east to Mauritius and Madagascar.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habitat | Mesic to dry forests | |
| Elevation | 40-610 m |
|
| Habit |
Plants large, epiphytic or terrestrial; rhizomes thick, short, erect. |
|
| Leaves |
Fronds simple, sessile, radiating in a shuttlecock fashion, broadly lanceolate, 50-100(-200) x 8-20 cm, entire, leathery; midrib wie, dark, flattened on upper surface, mostly thick and round beneath, sometimes triangular or trapezoidal; veins free, unforked or 1-forked, anastomosing at margin to form a continuous marginal commissural vein. |
|
| Sori |
Sori on almost every vein in the distal 1/2-2/3 of frond, linear, to 9+ cm long, extending from near midrib to 1/2-2/3 distance to margin; indusia extending length of sori, narrow. |
|
| Notes |
Latin nidus, nest, alluding to the nestlike appearance of the fern. The dark midribs of the frond were woven into lau hala mats by the Hawaiians to provide a color contrast. |
|
| Contributor |
David Lorence |
