Cyathea hooglandii 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 Western Highlands

Western Highlands

Western Highlands may refer to:*Western Highlands *Western High Plateau, a region of Cameroon...

 of 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...

, where it grows in mossy forest at an altitude of about 3000 m. The trunk of this plant is erect, up to 3 m tall and approximately 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 tripinnate, 1-2 m in length and produced in two whorls of five to seven each. 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....

 may be dull and warty or densely 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. These scales range in colour from dark to medium brown and have a broad, paler margin as well as fragile edges. Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of this species are its 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....

, which are borne singly at the base of each tertiary pinnule on the midvein. They are protected by firm indusia that are saucer-like in appearance.

John Braggins and Mark Large note that C. hooglandii appears to be related to Cyathea microphylloides. It differs from that species in having single sori at the base of fertile tertiary pinnules.

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...

 hooglandii commemorates botanist Ruurd Dirk Hoogland

Ruurd Dirk Hoogland

Ruurd Dirk Hoogland was a Dutch explorer and naturalist, who made ​​numerous botanical expeditions to New Guinea , Australia and Europe. He was an expert on the Cunoniaceae family....

 (1922-1994), who collected numerous plants in New Guinea, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.