Phymatosorus grossus
Phymatosorus grossus (Langsdorff & Fischer) Brownlie, Maile-Scented Fern, laua'e, is probably the most commonly encountered fern in the Hawaiian Islands. It is found in street plantings and in home and public gardens, where it is used as a border plant, ground cover, or individual planting, and often as a container plant. It has escaped from cultivation and is found on all main islands growing as a ground cover in the lower forests. This plant has long been known as Phymatosorus scolopendria or Microsorum scolopendria, but Brownlie (1977) pointed out that P. scolopendria (Burmann) Pichi-Sermolli has fronds with only one to four pairs of lobes and grows as an epiphyte, while Phymatosorus grossus has larger fronds with up to 10 pairs of lobes and is mostly terrestrial. Phymatosorus grossus is found growing in the wild from Australia and New Caledonia to Fiji and eastward throughout the South Pacific, where it is the most common species of this genus. The earliest collection in Hawai'i was made in Kipahulu, Maui, by C. N. Forbes (Forbes 1778.M, BISH) in December 1919. In a handwritten note on this herbarium sheet Forbes noted: "Thoroughly naturalized between Hana and Kaupo in many places." Wagner reviewed reports of the presence and advent of the species in Hawai'i and noted that reports and collections of this species as naturalized from various localities increased significantly beginning in 1922. It seems to have appeared in the late 1910s and spread rapidly throughout the Islands.
It is of interest that this alien fern should have been given a Hawaiian name and attributed to have been used in pre-European culture in perfuming tapa and in the making of leis (Krauss 1993) . It is most likely that Hawaiians in the 20th century have used P. grossus to replace the rare, fragrant, endemic Microsorum spectrum (Kaulfuss) Copeland, which may have originally been used to provide a pleasant scent to tapa (Fosberg 1942; Abbott 1992) .
