These are drawings of the Athyrium haleakalae, a new species of fern found in East Maui. KENNETH WOOD and WARREN WAGNER photo

The Maui News

A new species of fern found by botanists surveying a remote East Maui area was announced and described in a recent research article.

The fern named Athyrium haleakalae “is uniquely adapted to survive on vertical walls of streams, especially near waterfalls, and has the ability to withstand flooding torrents,” according to a news release from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“Its small size, remote habitat and tendency to grow in such extreme areas may explain why it had been overlooked to date,” the news release said.

The new fern species was found during botanical surveys around large, remote waterfalls and rugged plunge pools by botanists of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and Haleakala National Park.

Since the fern was discovered in August 2013, several small colonies of about 300 plants of the species have been observed in several East Maui headwater drainage systems, including ones in the Hana Forest Reserve, Koolau Forest Reserve and Kipahulu near Palikea in Haleakala National Park, according to the research article.

The small fern colonies are considered critically endangered because of threats to their limited habitat from invasive species, according to the news release.

Lance De Silva, a forester with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said that most of the plants are found on state lands above a fence protecting the habitat from pigs and other invasive species.

“This fence was constructed a few years ago with the help of the East Maui Watershed Partnership and contractors, to protect watershed forests that help supply Maui’s fresh water,” said De Silva, the Maui Nui Forest Management supervisor.

The research paper was done by Kenneth Wood of the National Tropical Botanical Garden and Warren Wagner of the Smithsonian Institution.

“This new discovery brings the total number of fern and fern-allies in the Hawaiian Islands to around 160 native species,” Wood said. “In addition, over the last few decades over 40 new flowering plant species have been discovered and described in Hawaii. Continued support for ongoing biotic research like this is so important, as it is difficult to conserve the diversity of life, unless you know what species still remain in our natural world, where they occur, and share this information with other active conservation organizations and the community.”