Cyathea

Cyathea is a large genus comprising of around 600 living species, and was originally described in 1753.

Most are tree ferns with a single trunk, which may be up to twenty centimeters (8 inches) in diameter. Height varies from species to species, with the tallest such as Cyathea brownii reaching up to eighteen meters (60 feet) tall. The fronds vary in length from 250 cm (8 feet) to as much as six meters (20 feet) in length, but are usually in the range of two to four meters (6.5 to 13 feet).

One of the features which distinguishes Cyathea from the other genera of tree ferns are the scales found on the trunk. The trunk on a young plant may grow by as much as thirty centimeters (1 foot) per year, and some species may live for 50 - 100 years or more.

Cyathea are endemic to Mexico, Central and South America, Cocos Island, the Galápagos Islands, the Caribbean, Africa, Madagascar, the Seychelles, India, southern China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, eastern Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the western Pacific.

Worldwide distribution of Cyathea species:

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Cyatheaceae, the family of plants to which Cyathea belongs, date back to at least the Jurassic Period (145 to 200 million years ago). Fossils belonging to Cyathea pinnata have been found in rocks from the Eocene Epoch (34 to 56 million years ago) in the state of Washington, United States.

All living species of Cyathea are protected by Appendix II of the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) treaty.

The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants lists 197 species as threatened, or around 32% of all living Cyathea species.

Click here for Cyathea in the the Encyclopedia of Life.