Cyathea elmeri 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 the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Talaud Islands

Talaud Islands

Talaud Islands is a group of islands located north of Sulawesi island in Indonesia, northeast of the Sangihe Islands...

, and northern Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

, where it grows in forest at an altitude of 500-1400 m. The trunk of this plant is erect and 5-10 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 may be bi- or tripinnate and up to 2 m or more in length. The lower surface 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 distinctively pale and warty. The stipe

Stipe (botany)

In botany, a stipe is a stalk that supports some other structure. The precise meaning is different depending on which taxonomic group is being described....

 is covered with 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 and has warts towards the base. The scales are large, tapering, thin, and medium brown in colouration. 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....

 are borne near the fertile pinnule midvein. Indusia are absent.

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...

 elmeri commemorates pteridologist Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer

Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer

Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer was an American botanist and plant collector.Elmer was born in 1870 in Van Dyne, Wisconsin, United States. He was educated at the Washington Agricultural College, and earned a M.Sc. from Stanford University in 1903. He made extensive plant collections in the Philippines...

(1870-1942).