Cyathea arborea (L.) Sm.

Cyathea arborea (L.) Smith, Mem. Acad. Turin 5 : 417. 1793
Polypodium arboreum ,. Sp. PI. 1092, 1753. Disphenia arborea Presl, Tent. Pterid. ^d. 1836. Hemitelia arborea F^e, M#m. Foug. 5 : 350. 1852.
Caudex erect, 4—12 meters high, the fronds usually in a close divaricate crown, articulate and readily separable, the caudex with about 8-10 ranks of close-set to tessellate, oval, roundedovate, obovate, or broadly subhexagonal, scabrous scars about 2-4 cm. in diameter. or in young or rapidly growing plants the fronds strictly ascending, the stipes long-adnate, leaving a few distant elongate -elliptic scars up to 15-18 cm. long and about 4 cm. broad, or both types of scars evident in zones in the same individual ; summit of the caudex, the spaces among the upper scars, and the bases of the stipes closely covered with lanceolate attenuate dirty-white scales up to 4 cm. long; fronds 2.5^ meters long, the stipe very stout, low-tuberculate, yellowish-olivaceous, lighter above, succulent ; lamina 2-3 meters long, tripinnate, the primary and secondary rachises more or less muricate, dull-yellowish, minutel}'furfuraceo-puberulous, quickly glabrescent, devoid of scales, the leaf-tissue light-
^
green, delicately chartaceo-membranous, minutely papillate ; pinnae mostly alternate, spreading, 40-80 cm. long, 16-35 cm. broad, oblong, abruptly acuminate, petiolate (1-3 cm,) or the basal ones exactly ovate and longpetiolate {up to 7 cm.) ; pinnules of the middle pinnae 20-26 pairs, all but the lower ones sessile (in the lower and basal pinnae these longpetiolate, up to 1.5 cm.), subimbricate, contiguous, or mostly approximate, spreading (or the lower ones somewhat retrorse), 8-18 cm. long, 1.5-3.5 cm. broad, lanceolate, oblonglanceolate, or elliptic-lanceolate, usually broadest near the middle, the apex gradually longattenuate and serrate, the costa finely furfuraceo-puberulous below but quickly glabrous, above scantily long-pilose; segments 20-32 pairs, linear-oblong (or if partially fertile often narrowly oblong-spatulate), subfalcate, dilatate, sharply and often deeply serrate, if very fertile the margin usually revolute, each tooth embracing a sorus ; costules glabrous above, or with 1-3 spinous hairs near the apex, below uniformly with 1 or 2 deciduous white bullate scales at the base, elsewhere (together with the veins) very minutely glandularsetulose ; veins 10-13 pairs, if fertile mostly once-forked below the middle, if sterile often 2or3-forked; sori numerous, 6-11 pairs ; indusia lightor yellowish-brown, shallow, saucerlike ; receptacle capitate, exserted, squamulose-setiferous, sometimes cleft.
Type locality : I^e Morne de la Calebasse, Martinique.
Distribution : General in the Greater and Lesser Antilles ; rare in Mexico ; variously reported from northern South America and intervening territory.

Cyathea arborea (vernacular English: West Indian treefern, vernacular Spanish: helecho gigante or palo camarón) is a plant of the family Cyatheaceae in the order Cyatheales. Tree ferns are an ancient form of plant life that still survive in tropical forests. This species of tree fern is native to the Caribbean, including Cuba, Hispaniola, and the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico.