This name was probably originally a generic label for tree ferns of the Cyathea family. Within this family the Sphaeropteris and Alsophila species were formerly classified botanically under the genus Cyathea (and still are by some taxonomists); the New Zealand species, which include the iconic "silver fern", Alsophila tricolor, were re-classified on the NZPCN database in 2023. See the note at the end of this page for a brief outline of these changes.
R&W (Dictionary p. 421) record Gaillardia aristata as another "ponga", with the note "Endemic to Tonga". This is probably a misprint; this meaning is not listed under ponga in the Churchward dictionary, and G. aristata, a member of the daisy family [Asteraceae], although widespread in the tropics, is native to the Americas and, obviously, does not fit into the otherwise general use of this name for tree ferns or very large ferns.
The use of the name ponga in Rarotonga to denote Alsophila tricolor, as in Aotearoa, is recorded in Pollex, but that will be a recent acquisition to both the flora and the vocabulary, as A. tricolor is endemic to New Zealand. The Samoan referents are marked in R&W (p. 381) as requiring further investigation to establish their validity; their sound correspondence to the Tongan and Māori reflexes of *Ponga is also irregular. However, the meaning is intriguing, especially if the Samoan paonga is in fact the "ancient name for oliolï, Cyathea spp." [i.e. Sphaeropteris and Asophila spp.] as one of their sources is quoted as having stated (under the new classification Cyathea is found mostly in the Americas). The Cook Islands Biodiversity Database has an entry for Cyathea [i.e. Alsophila] decurrens "Budding Tree Fern", native to the Cook Islands, with the Rarotongan name panga - thus possibly cognate with either or both the possible Samoan, or established Tongan and Māori, reflexes of *ponga. One of the species names listed under paonga by R&W, Cyathea vitiensis, is a synonym for Sphaeropteris lunulata (see Large & Braggins, Tree Ferns, p. 156). To enhance the variations on this theme, in New Zealand English, the word "ponga", acquired from Māori, is pronounced the same way as Cook Island "panga", and used as a term for tree ferns generally.
Sphaeropteris lunulata īs a large tree fern, often reaching 8-10 metres in height, and sometimes as high as 20 m. Likewise, the fronds may be up tp 6m in length, although generally they reach about half that size. The stipes (frond stalks) and midribs have an abundance of pale, thin scales, and are greenish black in colour. This is a tropical tree fern found natively from the Bismarck Archipelago to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, Western Polynesia and the high islands of Micronesia. It grows in lowland and coastal forests from sea level to about 200 m. In Samoa, it is one of the dominant species in open shrubland and secondary forests. Mrs H. B. Richenda Parham (Fiji Plants, p. 4) has this to say about Sphaeropteris lunulata, known as balabala, in Fiji:
The Kai Viti have many uses for this handsome fern. Used both for food and medicine; the juice from the stem and stipes is used externally, for any kind of headache. The soft scales covering the stipes also are utilized for stuffing pillows. These are very soft. The word balabala is also used for the rustic flower-pots made from the stem of tree- ferns
Sphaeropteris truncata is another tall tree fern, reaching about 10 metres with fronds 4 to 5 metres in length. The stipes and undersides of the midrib of the fronds are dark and the stipe is covered in scales.This tree-fern's natural range is from the Solomon Islands to Fiji and Samoa; it is not found natively in Tonga or further east.
Angiopteris evecta, described on the page for *Palatao, is a member of the Marattiaceae (as is the New Zealand para, Ptisana salicina). The element "para" in these names, and in the Fijian name for Sphaeropteris lunulata, is derived from the Proto-Oceanic word root *bala. Angiopteris evecta is a truly gigantic fern, with a short trunk and fronds reaching 7 metres long and about 3 metres wide. It is native to Malesia, North Queensland and Polynesia as far as the Cook Islands and Tahiti, but not the Marquesas, Aotearoa, or Hawai'i (although it has become an invasive weed on some of the Hawaiian Islands, after escaping from the Lyon Arboretum in the 1920s).
Alsophila decurrens is a shortish tree fern, ranging from 50 cm to 2.5 metres high, with a slender trunk. The upper surfaces of the frond midribs are densely hairy, but the stipes are covered in dark-brown scales. The total length of the frond can be over 3 metres, so the ferns can be much wider than they are tall. This is a widely distributed tree fern, from southern New Ireland to Fiji and much of Polynesia, but it is not found natively in the Marquesas, Hawai'i or Aotearoa. It grows mainly on valley sides and along ridges from about 70 to 350 m. It has the unusual property for a tree-fern of being able to produce branches from the trunk which can develop roots and grow independently if detached from the parent plant. (This same phenomenon is occasionally observed in New Zealand tree ferns Dicksonia fibrosa and D. squarrosa, and also some New Zealand members of the Cyathea family.)
Alsophila tahitensis is an East Polynesian species, native to the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, and the Marquesan Archipelago. Characteristics like typical height vary according to locality and environment. In Rarotonga it grows only a metre or two high, even less in exposed situations, whereas in the Marquesas it may be 6 to 10 metres tall. It has a slender trunk (about 20 cm in diameter in taller specimens), crowned by rosettes of 6-11 fronds. The stipes are fairly short (7-60 cm long) with the leafy part of the frond 80 cm to 2 m or more long by 50-90 cm wide. This tree-fern prefers higher altitudes (above 500 m) and damp conditions. In the Marquesas it is also found in open areas and clearings as well as valleys. The trunk is usually bare below the crown, as the drooping habit of the older fronds tends to ensure that the dead fronds fall off quickly. Large and Braggins report that in the Marquesas, the young shoots are eaten (Tree Ferns, p.88). This may also have been the case in Tahiti. Under the heading of Huareru, Art Whistler (Annotated List, p. 40) mentions both the māma'u (Sphaeropteris medullaris), and a fern with the "unresolved name" of Cyathea societarum, both called by some writers the "Cabbage tree", which grows in the mountains, is seldom eaten, but eaten in times of famine. The second tree fern may have been Alsophila tahitensis.
Sphaeropteris parksiae is endemic to Rarotonga, and the third of the tree ferns known there as panga. It is allied to the New Zealand mamaku (S. medullaris), but among other things is not nearly as tall, and does not have the stout, downward curving black stipes (frond stalks) of the mamaku. It is scattered rather sparingly through higher altitude forest (100-450 m. above sea level), although it may be more common in favourable niches; it is typically a fern of ridge-tops and steep valley sides. It grows 4-5 metres high but may be much shorter in exposed locations. The dead fronds are usually shed leaving a bare trunk with no "skirt".
The last in this assembly of plants with names reflecting Proto-Polynesian *Ponga is its namesake the New Zealand "Silver Fern", Alsophila tricolor, previously known for over a century as Cyathea dealbata -- the Latin specific name meaning "whitewashed" nicely described the undersides of typical fronds (they are only occasionally green), but that name has become a casualty of botanical reclassification. This tree-fern grows to about 10 metres tall and is especially common in more open patches of forest and scrubland. More information about this fern will be found on the page for the Māori plant name Ponga.
A NOTE ON TAXONOMY OF TREE FERN SPECIES. Shortly after Te Māra Reo Kawerongo #3 was sent out in January 2023, 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 website are: the former 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 where relevant as time permits.
The reasons for these changes not mentioned on this page are outlined in Te Māra Reo 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. The same practice has been followed by W. R. Sykes in his Flora of the Cook Islands (2016) and on the Cook Islands Biodiversity Database.
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Sphaeropteris lunulata - Paonga (Samoa) 
