Cyathea hotteana 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 Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, where it grows in cloud forest

Cloud forest

A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...

 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. 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 and may reach 2 m in length. Brown basal 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 cover 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...

 and 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....

, which are also brown. 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 in two rows, one on each side of the pinnule midvein. They are covered by shallow, plate-like indusia, which bear one or two clefts at the margin.

C. hotteana was once abundant at lower altitudes. Indeed, 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...

 material was collected at 700 m above sea level. However, forest clearance in recent decades has limited the altitudinal distribution of this species to higher elevations.

C. hotteana appears to be related to 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 bryophila

Cyathea bryophila

Cyathea bryophila is a species of tree fern native to Puerto Rico, where it grows in the understory 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. Fronds are pinnate or bipinnate and grow to 2 m in length. The underside...

and Cyathea minor.

In the wild, C. hotteana is known to hybridise with Cyathea woodwardioides, producing the hybrid Cyathea × confirmis

Cyathea × confirmis

Cyathea × confirmis is a tree fern endemic to Haiti. It is a natural hybrid of Cyathea hotteana and Cyathea woodwardioides.C. × confirmis is not to be confused with the similarly named Cyathea conformis.-References:...

(not to be confused with Cyathea conformis).