Cyathea bryophila 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 Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, where it grows in the understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

 in wet montane and mossy forest at an altitude of 750-1200 m. The trunk is erect, up to 7 m tall and about 10 cm in diameter. 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 pinnate

Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

 or bipinnate and grow to 2 m in length. The underside of 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...

 is pubescent and has occasional 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 towards the base. The scales range in colour from brown to bicoloured (pale with brown margins). 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 along each side of the pinnule midvein and are covered by scale-like indusia. C. bryophila is a slow growing species, reportedly only increasing in trunk height by 5 cm a year, a growth rate more akin to that of Dicksonia

Dicksonia

Dicksonia is a genus of tree ferns in the order Cyatheales. It is regarded as related to Cyathea, but is considered more primitive, dating back at least to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record includes stems, pinnules, and spores....

species. It has been estimated that plants may live in excess of 150 years.

The closest relatives of C. bryophila appear to be Cyathea brooksii

Cyathea brooksii

Cyathea brooksii is a species of tree fern native to Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, where it grows on serpentine soils in shaded ravines, along streams, and on forested slopese at an altitude of 250-950 m. The trunk is prostrate and only about 6 cm in diameter. Fronds are pinnate or bipinnate...

, Cyathea hotteana

Cyathea hotteana

Cyathea hotteana is a species of tree fern endemic to Haiti, where it grows in cloud forest at an altitude of 1000-1200 m. The trunk of this plant is erect, up to 2 m tall, and approximately 8 cm in diameter. Fronds are pinnate and may reach 2 m in length. Brown basal scales cover the rachis and...

and Cyathea minor. In the wild, it is known to hybridise with Cyathea amintae

Cyathea amintae

Cyathea amintae is a species of tree fern native to Puerto Rico, where it grows in shaded areas and cloud forest at an altitude of 1000-1200 m. The erect trunk may be 1.3 m tall and approximately 5 cm in diameter. Fronds are pinnate and up to 1.6 m long. The rachis is often purplish brown and...

and Cyathea portoricensis. With the former, it forms the fertile hybrid Cyathea × dryopteroides

Cyathea × dryopteroides

Cyathea × dryopteroides is a tree fern native to Puerto Rico, where it grows at an altitude of 1000-1200 m. It is now known to be of hybrid origin between Cyathea amintae and Cyathea bryophila.-References:...

.

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...

 bryophila, meaning "bryophyte

Bryophyte

Bryophyte is a traditional name used to refer to all embryophytes that do not have true vascular tissue and are therefore called 'non-vascular plants'. Some bryophytes do have specialized tissues for the transport of water; however since these do not contain lignin, they are not considered to be...

 loving", refers to the fact that this species is commonly encountered in mossy forest.

C. bryophila may be cultivated, although it requires consistently cool and moist conditions to do well. It is apparently more susceptible to insect damage than most other species. In the horticultural

Horticulture

Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

 trade, C. bryophila is often erroneously called Cyathea pubescens, although this is an unrelated species.