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Ophioglossum pendulum

[syn. Ophioderma pendulum subsp. falcatum]

Puapua moa or Adder's tongue

Ophioglossaceae

Indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands (all main islands)

Oʻahu (Cultivated)

 

Hawaiian name: Puapua "tail feathers" and moa, "chicken," lit. "chicken tail feathers."

 

Habit

www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/13853610635/in/datetaken...

 

Early Hawaiians prepared a cough remedy from this fern. Its spores were given to infants after birth to purge them of meconium.

 

Etymology

The generic name Ophioglossum is from the Greek ophis, snake, and glossa, tongue, in reference to the fertile spike resembling a snake's tongue.

 

The Latin specific epithet pendulum, hanging, in reference to this species' drooping blade.

 

nativeplants.hawaii.edu/

 

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Uploaded on April 14, 2014
Taken on April 11, 2014