Microlepia strigosa

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fronds, Leaves

Young fronds are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grows in hilly areas. In southern China it grows between 100-1,000 m above sea level.

Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hawaii, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Pacific, Philippines, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand,

How to Identify

A large tufted fern. It grows in soil. The fronds are twice divided. The spore groups (sori) are cup shaped and near the edges of the fronds.

Medicinal Uses

Early Hawaiians used the fronds to decorate hula altars dedicated to Laka, goddess of hula. The ferns were used as head lei (lei poʻo), neck lei (lei ʻāʻī), and wrist lei (lei kūpeʻe) and to provide a soft base against the skin. The plants were believed to be a cure for insanity. It was also used to bathe in and young leaf fronds were fed to babies.

Microlepia strigosa, known as hay-scented fern, lace fern, rigid lace fern and palapalai, is a fern indigenous to the Hawaiian islands and is also native to other parts of the tropics and subtropics including India and Malaysia. This fern belongs to a group of about seventy Microlepia species in the bracken or hay-scented fern family (Dennstaedtiaceae). There are two indigenous species and a hybrid found in the main Hawaiian Islands. It is also known by the botanical names: Davallia hirta, Davallia setosa, Davallia strigosa, Dicksonia kaulfussiana, Dicksonia strigosa, Microlepia hirta, Microlepia setosa, Stenoloma tenuifolium, Trichomanes strigosum. It has coarse, light to medium green fronds which can grow to more than 3 ft (0.9 m) long.

More from Dennstaedtiaceae

Dennstaedtia penicillifera

Dennstaedtia punctilobula

Eastern hay-scented fern

Dennstaedtia samoensis

Unu unu

Dennstaedtia scandens

Dennstaedtia spp.

Fern

Hypolepis hostilis