Angiopteris evecta (Marattiaceae) giant fern, king's fern, mule's-foot fern

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Angiopteris evecta is a large fern, with a "stem" (rhizome) up to 3' (1m) tall, and leaves up to 10' (3m+) long and 6' (2m) wide.  "...Angiopteris is apparently naturalizing in wet valleys on Oahu, a cause for concern." Additionally: "Mule's-foot fern [Angiopteris evecta] is naturalizing freely in the Lyon Arboretum and other local botanical gardens, apparently spreading by spores shed from cultivated plants into nearby areas of the Koolau range. Populations of naturalized plants have been found in the Maunawili area of windward Oahu as well as other localities, and this fern appears able to naturalie freely in wet valleys. It woon overtops the surrounding native and exotic vegetation, quickly spawning swarms of offspring downslope/downwind of the parent plant. For this reason we discourage continued planting of mule's-foot fern as an ornamental, and we encourage gardners to eradicate plants already growing in their yards." (Staples and Herbst. 2005. A tropical garden flora.) (Cited in this quote is also: Funk, E. 1987. Spontaneous spread of Angiopteris evecta (Marattiales) in the central Koolau Mountains, Oahu, Hawaii. Newslett. Hawaiian Bot. Soc. 26(3): 58-59.)  "[Angiopteris evecta] was introduced to Hawaii in 1927 at what is now the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley, Oahu." (Staples and Herbst. 2005. A tropical garden flora.) 

Species description or overview

Angiopteris evecta information from PIER
Information on Angiopteris evecta as relevant to Pacific Islands is provided by the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk project (PIER).

Taxonomy & nomenclature

ITIS nomenclature info for Angiopteris evecta
Nomenclatural information about Angiopteris evecta is provided by ITIS.

Angiopteris evecta information from the Smithsonian's Flora of the Hawaiian Islands   
Information about Angiopteris evecta--including nomenclature and synonymy, and status and distribution in Hawaii--is provided by the "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands" website of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Links from this page include descriptive information about the species, as well as worldwide distributional information and general information about the genus.

IPNI nomenclature info for Angiopteris evecta   
Nomenclatural information about Angiopteris evecta is provided by The International Plant Names Index (IPNI).

Pest alerts

Impacts

Hawaii State DLNR/DOFAW cites Angiopteris evecta (Marattiaceae) as a weedy species used in horticulture
The State of Hawaii DLNR/DOFAW urges people not to use Angiopteris evecta (Marattiaceae) horticulturally.

Images

Images of Angiopteris evecta (Marattiaceae) (mule's-foot fern)
Links to high-resolution free images of Angiopteris evecta (Marattiaceae) (mule's-foot fern) by Forest & Kim Starr (USGS) are available here.

Angiopteris evecta information from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Information about Angiopteris evecta in Hawaii is available from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands.

Angiopteris evecta images from PIER
Images of Angiopteris evecta provided by the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk project (PIER).

Distribution

Angiopteris evecta information from the Smithsonian's Flora of the Hawaiian Islands   
Information about Angiopteris evecta--including nomenclature and synonymy, and status and distribution in Hawaii--is provided by the "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands" website of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Links from this page include descriptive information about the species, as well as worldwide distributional information and general information about the genus.

Invasive species in the Pacific: A technical review and draft regional strategy (2000) 
The status of invasive plants, vertebrates, arthropods, molluscs, and crustaceans, and options for a regional invasive species strategy for the South Pacific are presented in this series of articles from the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, 2000.

Books

Full-text articles

Other resources

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The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project is currently funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH-Hilo). More details are available online.

The content of this page is based on information last generated on 30 January 2010 by PT. The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT.