Cyathea archboldii is a species of tree fern

Cyatheales

The order Cyatheales is a taxonomic division of the fern subclass, Cyatheatae, which includes the tree ferns. No clear morphological features characterize all of the Cyatheales, but DNA sequence data indicates that the order is monophyletic. Some species in the Cyatheales have tree-like growth...

 native to New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 and Bougainville

Bougainville Island

Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...

, where it is common in submontane rain forest at an altitude of 1000-3000 m. The trunk is erect and up to about 3 m tall. Frond

Frond

The term frond refers to a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group...

s are bipinnate and 2-3 m long. The rachis

Rachis

Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft".-In zoology:In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the rachis usually form the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column...

 may be purplish and has short spines and scale

Scale (zoology)

In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...

s. The scales range in colour from pale to brown, to bicoloured (brown with dark brown) and have fragile edges. Sori

Sorus

A sorus is a cluster of sporangia .In fungi and lichens, the sorus is surrounded by an external layer. In some red algae it may take the form of a depression into the thallus....

 occur in two rows along each side of the pinnule midvein and are covered by firm indusia.

C. archboldii has a wide altitudinal distribution and has been collected in habitats ranging from forest to alpine shrubbery. One variety, C. archboldii var. horrida, was recognised by Richard Eric Holttum

Richard Eric Holttum

Richard Eric Holttum was an English botanist. He did a good deal of work in Southeast Asia and Australasia. He shared the 1964 Linnean Medal with Carl Pantin.The abbreviation Holtt. is also used.-References:...

 in 1963. Cyathea foersteri

Cyathea foersteri

Cyathea foersteri is a species of tree fern native to eastern New Guinea, where it grows in scrub in forest margins and mossy forest at an altitude of 1600-2800 m. The trunk is erect and up to 10 m tall. Fronds may be bi- or tripinnate and 2-2.5 m long. Usually around nine or ten live fronds are...

and Cyathea nigrolineata

Cyathea nigrolineata

Cyathea nigrolineata is a species of tree fern in the family Cyatheaceae. Its trunk is approximately 10 meters tall. It has fronds that are 2 to 3 meters in length and bi- or tripinnate. The fronds are placed in groups of 5 to 8 per whorl. The stipe is scaly. It occurs in Eastern New Guinea forests...

are thought to be the closest relatives of this species, but differ in frond shape (lower pinnae are more reduced) and in having shorter stipes.

The specific epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

 archboldii is thought to commemorate Richard Archbold

Richard Archbold

Richard Archbold was an American zoologist and philanthropist. He was independently wealthy, being the grandson of the capitalist John Dustin Archbold. He was educated at private schools and later attended classes at Columbia University though he never graduated...

 (1907-1976), an internationally known explorer and heir to the Standard Oil Company

Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

. Archbold led several biological expeditions to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

and the interior of New Guinea.