Cyathea horrida (L.) Sm.

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Cyatheaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cyathea horrida (L.) Sm.

  • Description

    Species Description - Caudex erect, short (rarely as much as 1 m tall), 15 cm thick or more, covered with adherent spiny stipe-bases, the apical bud densely clothed with lance-attenuate, bicolorous scales, these dark brown with whitish erose margins. Fronds ascending, up to 3 m long or more, the light brown, whitish-scurfy stipes armed with numerous short, straight spines. Blades oblong, 1.5-2.5 m long, up to 1.2 m broad, short-acuminate; pinnae numerous, lance-deltate, 10-20(-25) cm broad, sessile, deeply pinnatifid, the segments narrowly oblong- acuminate with serrulate tips, 1-2 cm broad at the sinuses, the margins entire or sometimes lobed; tissue rigidly herbaceous, dark green adaxially, paler beneath, glabrous; rhachis, costae, costules, and veins glabrous adaxially, beneath the costules and veins very minutely glandularpubemlous; veins branched from near base in groups of 3-5, the costal ones united by a transverse veinlet; costular areoles also present. Sori supramedial, dorsal on veins, forming a sinuous row near the margin; indusium a proximal, semicircular scale, membranous, pale and translucent but subpersistent, with inegular or somewhat lacerate margin.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater Antilles, Costa Rica, and northem South America. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Occurs very widely throughout the moister parts of the island, but not very often collected; recorded from Adjuntas, Cayey, Jayuya, Lares, Naguabo, Ponce, Quebradillas, Rio Grande, and San Lorenzo; undoubtedly occurs in many other municipios. Habitat. Wet shaded ravines, glades, and moist wooded hillsides at lower middle to high elevations (220-1000 m), frequent or sometimes common.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 30.

    Basionym. Polypodium horridum Linnaeus, Sp. pl.2: 1092. 1753.

    Lectotype. Plumier, Descr. Pl. Amer., t. 4 (=Traite foug. Amer., t. 8), based on material from the vicinity of Port-de-Paix, Haiti (chosen by Stolze, Fieldiana Bot. 37: 42. 1974).

    Syn. Hemitelia horrida (Linnaeus) R, Brown ex Sprengel in Linnaeus, Syst, veg. ed. 16, 4: 125. 1827.

    Cnemidaria horrida (Linnaeus) K. Presl, Tent. pterid. 57. 1836.

    Actinophlebia horrida (Linnaeus) K. Presl, Abh. Konigl. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. ser. 5, 5: 356. 1848.

    Hemitelia hookeri Fee, Mem. foug. 5: 349. 1852. (Based on H. horrida R. Brown as illustrated by Hooker.), nomen illeg.

    Hemistegia horrida (Linnaeus) Fee, Mem. foug. 5:351. 1852.

    Hemitelia horrida var. hookeri [Fee] Jenman, Bull. Bot, Dept. Jamaica no. 25: 4. 1891.