Flora of the Hawaiian Islands - Species Page/ Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Pteridophyte	Literature for Pityrogramma austroamericana Palmer, 2003.
Pteridaceae	Bibliography
*Pityrogramma austroamericana*
Common name(s): fool's gold fern, gold fern, goldback fern

General Information
Distribution	Native to South America.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
Habitat	Exposed drier areas, on bare banks, along trails and roadsides, and in open disturbed fields.
Elevation	45-1525 m
Habit	Rhizomes erect with attached dense mass of roots.
Leaves	Fronds densely clustered, to 90 cm long (mostly shorter), spreading; stipe grooved and ridged adaxially, reddish brown, shiny; blade mostly 2-pinnate to 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, subcoriaceous, adaxial ridges on rachises and costae prominent, adaxial surfaces glossy; pinnae abaxial surfaces covered with a fine, deep golden yellow powder (farina); lowermost pinnae with stalks 4-6 mm long, basal pinnules usually not eared; pinnule margins mostly entire, those nearest the rachis sometimes lobed, tips more or less rounded.



Sori	Sori arranged in lines along veins, usually obscured by farina.




Notes	Latin austri, south, + american, America plus -ana, a suffix indicating a connection or possession, referring to its origin in South America.
Contributor	Sally Eichhorn