Formerly known as: Thelypteris maemonensis
Photograph location: On the trail to Lehnpaipohn waterfall in Kepar, Kitti, Pohnpei.
Family: Blechnaceae
English: rasp fern
Kosraean: fa (generic term for fern)
Mwoakillese: pwoa
Pohnpeian: tehn mahrek
Nukuoran: manu'a tababa
Chuukese: Iratong
Yapese: walem (skirt, a usage in Yap)
Used for washing dishes, cleaning water or filtering water. Leaves also used for decoration, the fiddle head of the leaf use for clotting blood and wounds. There are some important uses, the roots or rhizoid are use to hold together landscaping rocks or pile of rocks. [YN]
In history the legend of Mahrek. There was a man called Nahn Pwur en Pohnpei. In history this plant was name by this man. The name is given after a situation he found rare on this island. The event is like this; he made a batch to store his breadfruit. This batch is called Mahr it is used to save breadfruit only for times to come, this mahr was prepare because in the past there were lots of typhoon attack Pohnpei and people starve to dead because they do not have anything to eat. By the way one day Nahn pwur en Pohnpei came back to check his breadfruit storage and found this amazing plant grows all over the place. Then he named it Mahrek. In Pohnpei Mahr means breadfruit that stored in the soil. Rek means plenty of it. Therefore the man named it this way. Later on Pohnpeans found some important uses of this plant. Pohnpeans however uses this plant for washing dishes, clotting cuts, and use for filtering the oil. [JS]
Date collected: November 28, 1998
Original web page and images by: Yvonne N.
Further work done by Jansen Santos