Family: Dryopteridaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Elevation range exceeds 1000 m, demonstrating environmental versatility
  
• Grows in tropical climates
  
• Naturalized on all the main Hawaiian Islands and widely naturalized elsewhere
  
• Regarded as an environmental weed in Hawaii, (where it threatens Stenogyne bifida), Bermuda, Macaronesia, Florida and Australia
  
• Unpalatable to deer, rabbits and probably other animals
  
• Shade-tolerant (capable of invading forest understory)
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Reproduces by spores and vegetatively by rhizomes
  
• May hybridize with native C. caryotideum)
  
• Apogamous (able to develop a sporophyte from a gametophyte cell without fertilization)
  
• Spores dispersed by wind, water and intentionally cultivated by people
  
• Prolific spore production

Low Risk Traits:

• Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
  
• Non-toxic
  
• Despite weediness, valued for ornamental uses
  
• May take 5 years for to reach maturity
  
• Herbicides may provide effective control