4-leaf clover
has impostor

Description: As much as it looks like it, this is not a four-leaf clover. In fact it is not a flowering plant at all, but rather a tiny fern. Reaching tremendous heights of up to 6 inches, this petite plant with an oversize name sprawls over the ground with its tendril-like rhizomes and periodically sends out a four-petal frond up on a stalk no thicker than a hair. At night the fronds fold up, and open again after sunrise.

Distribution: This rare and endangered fern is found in dry lowland areas of Oahu and Molokai. You'll usually find them in shallow, short-lived ponds where the fronds appear to float on the water's surface, like a small lily pad. Although the plants normally live in dry habitats, it is essential for them to have periodic times of moisture because their male and female gametes (reproductive bodies) meet up via the water for reproduction.

Cultural uses: There are no known cultural uses for this fern, although it could have come in handy yesterday during St. Patrick's Day. Next year, you can be prepared and just carry around a little stalk in your pocket to deter friends from coming up to punch, pinch, poke or whatever it is they do to you for not wearing green. Or, give it to your significant other and say that you looked in the yard for hours to find this one four-leafed clover amongst an infinite expanse of three-leafed ones because she/he is so special to you. Little do they know that you have a whole pot of these four-leaf clover impostors. Just make sure they don't find your stash.

Landscape use and care: These dainty little ferns look great in moist soil around larger rocks or in water features where you can submerge them just enough so that their fronds float. They flourish in full sun.

Also: This plant is also known as 'ihi'ihi and 'ihila'au, but I prefer the name 'Ihi'ihilauakea because it is also the name of the crater on the western end of Hanauma Bay in which this fern is found, as well as the name of the wind that blows across that area. More important, it is also the name for a legendary woman from Waimanalo who was known for her beauty, kindness and ability to kick any person's behind in fishing and surfing.

I wonder, could professional surfer/model Malia Jones be a descendant of 'Ihi'ihilauakea? It sure sounds like it to me.