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 Like the link between the tōtara, a forest tree in Aotearoa, and tōtara, the puffer fish in Tahiti, along with the bark of the kauri and the skin of the sperm whale, at least three of the New Zealand tree ferns, two with Polynesian heritage names -- the ponga (Alsophila tricolor) and the mamaku (Sphaeropteris medullaris) -- along with the kātote (A. smithii), are similarly linked to a sea creature. In this case it is the hāpuku, a species of grouper, which in Aotearoa is the mythical parent of the tree ferns, and in Hawaii shares its name with one of the most conspicuous genera of indigenous tree ferns.
 The New Zealand link is recounted in a Ngai Tahu version of the Täwhaki cycle included in Volume 1 of John White's Ancient History of the Maori (1887), pp. 51-2 in the Māori texts and p. 59 of the English translation. Tāwhaki is an important Polynesian culture hero, who through a combination of charm, diplomacy, ingenuity and persistance managed to overcome many formidable phystical, ritual and spiritual obstacles to climb into the heavens. Among his earthly deeds were (in one of the Ngai Tahu accounts) the slaying of some of the family of Te Hāpuku (The Grouper), linked in these accounts with cetacians and tree ferns, in revenge for their responsibility for the murder of his father, Hemā. To avoid Tāwhaki's wrath:
 ... a ka whati taua whānau Hāpuku ki te moana, ko ētahi whati ki rō ... ngahere, ā ko ērā i whati ki te moana, i tupu tohorā, me te tini o te ika nui, ā ka mahara te iwi, a ka mate ētahi o rātou.
... Ko ngā ika i whati mai i te patunga a Tāwhaki. Ko Kewa, ko Ihu-puku, ko Paikea, ko Paraoa, ko Toriki, ko Popoia-kore, ko Kekeno, ko Te-rehu, ko Te-whakahao, ko Tere-poka, ko Te-kaki, ko Tawa-iti-roki, ko Te-upoko-hua, no te moana ērā, a ko ngā mea ki uta ki te whenua ko Te-Mamaku, ko Te-Poka (Ponga), ko Kā-Tote: i whakahētia ai te tupu o aua tini mea nei, mō tā rātou kohuru i te matua hakoro o Tā-whaki.
Some of the offspring of Hāpuku fled to the sea, and some to the forest. Those which fled to the sea became whales and other great fish. They were Kewa [Balaena australis, the right whale], Ihupuku [Arctocephalus forsteri, the fur seal], Paikea [another whale species], ... Kekeno, Whakahao and Rāpoka [Arctocephalus hookeri, the sea lion], and Upokohue [Gobicephala malaena, blackfish, and Cephalorhynchus hectori, the porpoise]. These were the fish of the sea; and the Mamaku [Sphaeropteris medullaris], Te Ponga [Alsophila tricolor], Kātote [A. smithii] -- these were called the fish of the forest. All these fish and trees were cursed for the death of Tāwaki's father. [Cf. J. White, Ancient History, Vol I, pp. 51-2 Māori text, macrons added; p. 59, English text.]
Some other versions of this tradition place the sea-mammals (along with sharks, stingrays, and/or insects) within Te Whānau a Punga (Punga's family). Punga was said to be a child of the sea deity, Tangaroa, and responsible for a variety of dangerous and unattractive creatures. However the version involving Te Hāpuku is the one which includes the tree ferns, and is very important for the link it provides between hāpuku as fish and hāpuku/hāpu'u as a tree fern, and thus between the Māori and Hawaiian associations of this word.
 Looking down on the hāpu'u ferns, for example in the small craters that they fill in the Volcanos National Park in Hawai'i (or even at the seedling pictured on the left), and the children of Te Hāpuku in the New Zealand forest, it is not hard to see why these ferns should be regarded as the "fish of the forest". One can envisage the young hāpu'u and its New Zealand counterpart the ponga as floating in their natural habitat.
There is also another reason to associate these tree ferns with fish, and this may indeed be the mātauranga Māori link encoded in the Māori narrative. Both the fish and the ferns have scales. If you look carefully at the stipes (stalks of the fronds) of these ferns, especially when they are young, you will see that the edges especially are covered in small scales. This is a characteristic of ferns in the Cyatheaceae, the "scaly tree fern" family (in contrast with the Whekī and its relatives, along with the Hawaiian Hapu'u, which have hairy stipes). Since the tree ferns named in the Māori account are all in the Cyathea family, it is very likely that the composer of the narrative noticed the scales which provided a tangible connection between the tree ferns and Te Hāpuku.
A NOTE ON TAXONOMY OF TREE FERN SPECIES. A few months after this page was revised in 2022, and shortly after Te Māra Reo Kawerongo #3 was sent out, a decision was made that the NZPCN database should adopt a revised taxonomy for these plants following the publication of several comprehensive DNA and taxonomic studies overseas. The New Zealand tree ferns formerly placed under Cyathea were reassigned to the re-established genera Sphaeropteris (C. medullaris) and Alsophila (all the rest -- with the former C. dealbata being re-named A. tricolor).
The main additional consequential changes required for this web site are: Cyathea parksiae becomes Sphaeropteris parksiae; Cyathea truncata a.k.a. Alsophila truncata becomes Sphaeropteris truncata; Alsophila rugosula is merged with and replaced by Sphaeropteris lunulata; Cyathea decurrens becomes Alsophila decurrens; Cyathea affinis becomes Alsophila tahitensis; also Angiopteris commutata becomes Angiopteris evecta. The genus Cibotium is shifted from the Dixoniaceae to a separate family, Cibotiaceae. These changes will be made page by page as time permits.
The reasons for these changes are outlined in Kawerongo #3 and #4. It should also be noted that these changes are not universally regarded as necessary. If you search for the generic name Alsophila on the Atlas of Living Australia website, for example, you will get this message:
genus: Alsophila R.Br. (accepted name: Cyathea)
Similarly, the botanists at Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand) prefer to regard Cyathea as a single genus, with Alsophila, Sphaeropteris and Cyathea s.s. as subgenera or divisions of the larger grouping.
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