Etymology

From elaeagnus (olive), and folium (leaf), a reference to the nature of the frond.

editorial

The spelling of the specific epithet of the endemic New Zealand leather-leaf fern has always been Pyrrosia eleagnifolia (Polypodiaceae). This agrees with the protologue by Jean Bory: Polypodium eleagnifolium Bory in Dup. Voy. Bot. 1. 259 t. 31 f. 1. 1828. Cameron, E. 2017 NZ Bot. Soc. Newsletter 129 page 8, explains that Pyrrosia eleagnifolia is an orthographic error and should be changed to P. elaeagnifolia. But nowhere in the ICN does it say that an epithet if named for a genus, must be written as the genus is written under the current ICN. As it was a widely use orthographic variant (that was not wrong at the time; Also some spellings have been conserved later), this is not correctable. It is not a typo/error, it is intentional and therefore not correctable.