Cyathea medullaris - Black Treefern or Mamaku (Subg. SPHAEROPTERIS, sect. Sphaeropteris, subsect. Sphaeropteris)
IDENTIFYING FEATURES:
* crozier and crown covered with very dark brown scales ... very confusing if you are growing this species from spore because the scales on small plants are extremely pale, the darker scales becoming more prominent as the fern develops
* dark purple-black stipes ... some less attractive forms (as in first photo) may not be quite so distinctive, with some yellow-brown patches of colour on the stipes
* black trunk, often 15 cm diameter, sometimes more massive, neatly patterned with oval leaf scars (although occasionally retaining a huge skirt of dead fronds in very sheltered locations), thick masses of short black bristles between the scars
* sori intitially covered with a very thin, almost invisible, indusium, the tattered remnants of which are quite prominent after the sori have disintegrated
* very robust and hardy species from New Zealand and the Pacific |
