R & C -> BOTANY-> ALIEN FERNS IN HAWAI'I -> INTRODUCTION

ALIEN FERNS IN HAWAI'I

Introduction

Thirty alien pteridophyte species are currently naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands, where they grow, reproduce, and spread in the native vegetation. William Hillebrand's Flora of the Hawaiian Islands did not list a single non-native fern (Hillebrand 1888) . The first known records of the naturalization of non-native pteridophytes were found in collections made in 1887 on O'ahu by W. E. Safford. In 1950, Warren Herb Wagner, Jr. published a comprehensive study of the ferns naturalized in Hawai'i and listed 21 species that had become established. He pointed out that by 1888 ferns had been thoroughly collected in Hawai'i, and it seemed improbable that any of the naturalized species in that study were growing wild in the Islands at the time of Hillebrand's work. The immigration of additional pteridophyte species into Hawai'i has continued steadily since Wagner's report. This paper examines changes that have occurred since 1950 giving ecological notes and distribution for all known naturalized ferns and fern allies in the Hawaiian Islands. Throughout this paper all references to Wagner and/or to 1950 records, unless otherwise indicated, are based on records in Ferns Naturalized in Hawaii (Wagner 1950).

Bank with alien ferns.
Manoa Falls trail, O'ahu.

The present status of naturalized ferns and fern allies in Hawai'i is shown in Table 1. In the table the species are arranged by the date of their first collection in Hawai'i as determined by the earliest available herbarium collections or, in some cases, written observations or anecdotal information as indicated in the text. The occurrence of each species on each of the islands of Hawai'i is based primarily on known collections. It is likely that many of the ferns are established on the less thoroughly collected islands, such as Moloka'i, and that continued collections will help fill in these records.


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