Cyathea latebrosa is a common and widespread 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 Indochina

Indochina

The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...

. Its natural range covers Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

 and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and stretches from the Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

 to Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, where it is present on the islands of Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 and Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. Plants reported from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 have thinner indusia and may represent a separate, as-yet undescribed, species. C. latebrosa grows in a wide range of habitats, including forest, secondary forest, and plantations, from sea level up to an elevation of about 1500 m.

Description

The trunk of Cyathea latebrosa is erect and usually grows to a height of 3-4 m. 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 are about 2 m long. They are lighter in colouration underneath and form a sparse, feathery crown. 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 reddish-brown, spiny, and bears some scales

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...

 near the base. These scales are dark, glossy, and have fragile edges. Stipes may be retained in younger plants, forming a characteristic messy skirt around the trunk. 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 near the fertile pinnule midvein. They are protected by small, bilobed indusia that are scale-like in appearance.

C. latebrosa is a variable tree fern. Braggins and Large (2004) note that it forms part of a complex of species that is not fully understood.

C. latebrosa appears to be most closely related to Cyathea incisoserrata

Cyathea incisoserrata

Cyathea incisoserrata is a species of tree fern native to the Malay Peninsula and the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, where it grows in forest and forest margins from the lowland to approximately 1250 m. The trunk is erect, about 4 m tall and 12 cm in diameter. Fronds may be bi- or...

, from which it differs in pinnule morphology

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

 and in not having scales throughout the length of the stipe.

Cultivation

In cultivation, this species does best in warmer climates and is not tolerant of frost. Plants should be provided with a plentiful supply of moisture and grown in well-drained humus.