HILO, Hawaiʻi — A fern species that was believed to be extinct when the last known specimen died on Hawaiʻi Island has been found on the island of Kauaʻi.
The native pendant kihi fern, which grows on ʻōhiʻa and on a few other native trees, was believed to be extinct for several years until a team from the Hawaiʻi Plant Extinction Prevention Program found another specimen on Kauaʻi earlier this year.
The last known Big Island specimen of the fern, or Adenophorus periens, was found dead in 2015. That prompted it to be listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct. With the discovery of new specimens on Kauaʻi, it's no longer considered possibly extinct.
There were nearly 1,300 known specimens of the ferns throughout the state in 1994, but by 2012 there were only 31 on Kauaʻi and less than 10 on the Big Island.
Five of the ferns were discovered at three locations on Kauaʻi, said Matt Kier, a botanist with Hawaiʻi's Department of Land and Natural Resources' Rare Plant Program.
“So, we’ll try to mass-produce them and hopefully reintroduce them into the wild, which means we may bring them back to the Big Island,” Kier said.
