Cyathea grevilleana 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...

 endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, where it grows in moist gullies and on wooded hills in both calcareous and noncalcareous soils at an altitude of 200-1200 m. The trunk of this plant is erect, about 7 m tall, and 10-15 cm in diameter. It is characteristically clothed in old 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....

 bases, brown 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 blackish spines. 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 tripinnate, dark green in colour, and up to 4 m in length. The last pinnae are sometimes separated, forming a distinctive clump around the trunk apex. 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 yellow-brown and almost smooth. This species has a long, dark brown stipe with a few scattered spines. 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 produced in four to six pairs along the pinnule midvein. They are protected by pale brown indusia that are cup-like in appearance.

C. grevilleana forms part of the complex centered around Cyathea woodwardioides comprising six very similar taxa

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 from the Greater Antilles

Greater Antilles

The Greater Antilles are one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico, the Greater Antilles constitute almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies.-Greater Antilles in context :The islands of the Caribbean Sea, collectively known as...

. The other five species are Cyathea crassa

Cyathea crassa

Cyathea crassa is a species of tree fern endemic to the Santo Domingo area in the Dominican Republic. Little is known about this rare tree fern.C...

, Cyathea fulgens

Cyathea fulgens

Cyathea fulgens is a species of tree fern native to Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola. It forms part of the complex centered around Cyathea woodwardioides comprising six very similar taxa from the Greater Antilles. The other five species are Cyathea crassa, Cyathea grevilleana, Cyathea portoricensis and...

, Cyathea portoricensis and Cyathea tussacii. Large and Braggins (2004) note that this group is known to cross with members of the Cyathea minor complex.

Cyathea lindsayana was described by William J. Hooker in 1865 based on material that was recorded as having originated from Mount Lindesay in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. Tindale (1956) concluded that this taxon is conspecific with C. grevilleana and thus should be considered a junior synonym. Large and Braggins suggest Hooker's naming of a new species identical to one published previously was likely an error and the result of samples being mixed up.

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...

 grevilleana commemorates Robert Kaye Greville

Robert Kaye Greville

Robert Kaye Greville was a Scottish mycologist, bryologist, and botanist. He was an accomplished artist and illustrator of natural history. In addition to science he was interested in political causes like abolitionism, capital punishment, keeping Sunday special and the temperance movement...

 (1794-1866), who collected the type

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

specimen in Jamaica in 1832.