Hāpuʻu or Hāpuʻu meu Cibotiaceae (Tree fern family) Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (common on Oʻahu; uncommon to scattered on Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi Island) ʻAiea Loop Trail, Oʻahu

A characteristic feature of this hāpuʻu or tree fern (Cibotium chamissoi) is retaining it's skirt of dead fronds, whereas other Hawaiian species will generally shed them.

Hawaiians, both long ago as well as in recent times, ate the uncoiled fronds (fiddles), which were considered delicious when boiled. Likely the starchy core of this species, as with hāpuʻu pulu and hāpuʻu ʻiʻi, was used as an important famine food. One trunk may contain 50-70 pounds of almost pure starch and would have been used for human as well as pig consumption. It was prepared by peeling the young fronds or placing the entire trunk with the starchy center in an ʻimu or in steam vents at the volcano.

Etymology The generic name Cibotium is from the Greek kibotion, dimunutive of kibotos, a box or casket, in reference to the indusium, a part of the fern blade that covers the sorus (spores).

The specific name, chamissoi, named for Ludolf Karl Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), French-born German explorer, naturalist, author, poet, and plant collector.

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