Cyathea

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

• Family

  Cyatheaceae

• Scientific Name

  Cyathea

• Description

  Genus Description - More or less palmlike plants, with an erect or less often decumbent or horizontal caudex, often with a dense growth of blackish adventitious roots toward the base, the apex clothed with scales characteristic for each species, and often spiny. Fronds arching-pendent to ascending, moderate to very large in size, 1- or 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, often pubescent and/or scaly; stipes thick, curved, and densely clothed with scales toward base, the scales more or less deciduous; veins free or (rarely) the basal ones joined to form costal areoles. Sori dorsal on veins, or else arising from vein axils; indusium present or absent, if present, subtending the sorus and various in size and shape, sometimes partially or wholly enclosing the sporangia, or else sometimes reduced to a mere scale; filamentous paraphyses often present; sporangia borne on an elevated receptacle; pedicel of sporangium short, consisting of four rows of cells; spores variously echinate, rugose, granulate, ridged, crested, or porous, always trilete.

• Discussion

  A genus of perhaps 600 species, about evenly divided between the N e w World and Old World tropics.