Family: Blechnaceae

English name: Rasp fern

Pohnpeian name: Tehn Marek

Kosraen name: None

Chuukese name: Iratong

Yapese name: Gob

Location: Sokehs Pah Municipality

Habitat: Terrestrial; Situated near a stream and surrounded by many other species of plants (seen in the left photo)

Fronds: The fronds are divided once; the margins are crenate; it is odd pinnately compound; it comes in clusters of fronds.

Sori description: Have small sori under the leave blade.

Uses: Use 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.

Growth Form: Herb

Growth Location: Terestrial

Growth Environment: Forest

Average height: Grow up to 2.5ft tall. Have extended leaves sticking from its rhizoid.

Stem: Has no bark, it’s a fern. It has sori under each leveled. Have sporangia covering the sorus.

Leaf arrangement: Leaves are like palm leaves have stipe opposite arrangement leaves.

Stipule: Is absent

Petioles: Ferns, the surface of ferns is mostly rough edges, and has a long stipe, rachis used for sharing its ingestible products.

Leaf blade: Have sori arranged in margins on the both sides of the leaf.

Inflorescence: Ferns reproduce by its sori.

Flora bracts: The sori often brown and mostly like a dust that flows. The sori is microscopic, the covering of the sori is called sporangia.

Flowers: Lack flower

Calyx: None

Corolla: None

Stamens: None

Ovary: None

Style: None

Fruits: None

Seed: None

Anything else: Terrestrial and often grow near wet places.

Cultural usage: 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 don’t 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.

Date collected: November 28, 1998