Cyathea pungens
Creators: name: Lehnert, Marcus
name: Tejedor, Adrian
name: Kessler, Michael
name: Rodríguez Duque, Wilson D.
name: Gallego, Luis Fernando Giraldo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Polypodiopsida
Cyatheales
Cyatheaceae
Cyathea
Cyathea pungens

description: Group of Cyathea pungens
Description
Leaves shallowly bipinnate-pinnatifid to partially tripinnate with narrow to closed sinuses; costae adaxially ± flattened, often green alate, at least with a green edge along each side, veins excurrent into the segment margins; blades often appearing glabrous, without multicellular hairs or hairs <1 mm long, often replaced by unicellular trichomidia, if hairs longer then tortuous and appressed, small bullate and flat squamules may cocurr in varying quantities and persistencies, colors ranging from whitish-gray, yellowish to dark brown, concolorous to bicolorous with white tips, never castaneaous; sori exindusiate (small irregularly shaped scales subtending the receptacle may occur), paraphyses relatively short (shorter than sporangia to slightly longer than closed sporangia), their tips often hyaline, fragile and missing in mature sori, never contorted; sporangia relatively few, ca 20–30 per sorus, dark orange-brown.
Key to the groups of Cyathea pungens s. str. and tree ferns most commonly mistaken for it
1. Petiole scales bicolorous brown with white margins (sometimes grading into coconcolorous pale brown ones; mostly whitish in C. praecincta), scales on the trunk tend to be darker with narrower margins, sometimes appearing entirely black; petiole scurf never dark brown to castaneous, either matted grayish white, or flakey, white to medium brown; squamules on blades often pale and partially white at the tips and/or margins (except for C. oblonga and C. pastazensis) .................................... ............................................................................................................................ C. pungens complex
– Petiole scales concolorous brown (sometimes margins slightly paler but not white), scales on the trunk of similar color, not notably darker; petiole scurf, if present, flakey, dark brown to castaneous; squamules on blades dark brown, never with white parts, but sometimes bullate squamules pale yellowish brown with darker tips ..................................................................................................... 2
2. Blackish spot at base of pinnules/costules present, at least in older leaves and in dried specimens, often bordering a sharp line (abscission layer); leaf axes of dried material yellowish to stramineous (= green in fresh material), rarely reddish brown, abaxially glabrous to glabrescent with hairs inconspicuous; paraphyses absent (only verrucate receptacles) to short, straight and evenly spreading, inconspicuous ......................................................... C. aspera complex (Lehnert et al. unpubl. data)
– Blackish spot at base of pinnules/costules absent; leaf axes reddish brown to atropurpureous, rarely paler, abaxially often visibly hairy; paraphyses ± the same length as to longer than the sporangia, often bent near their tip and clustered at the apex of the receptacle ................................................... ............................................................................................. C. tortuosa complex (see Lehnert 2016)
Key to the species of the Cyathea pungens complex
1. Petiole scales reaching all along the petiole, often also on lower rachis, persistent, scales relatively narrow; all pinnules blunt-tipped (obtuse to short-acute, never attenuate) ....................................... 2
– Petiole scales confined to lower half of petiole, broadly lanceolate to ovate with dark center, or if reaching further up then gradually becoming paler and less sharply contrasted between the brown center and the whitish margins; larger pinnules usually with long acute to attenuate tips ............... 3
2. Petiole scales lanceolate, all notably bicolorous, not becoming gradually paler in distal parts; all pinnae sessile. (northern Colombia, Venezuela, Guayana, Suriname, French Guiana, northern Brazil) ....... ............................................................................................................................... C. oblonga Domin
– Petiole scales broadly lanceolate, all notably bicolorous, becoming gradually paler in distal parts; lower pinnae notably stalked. (Ecuador, northern Peru) ................................... C. werffii R.C.Moran
3. Petiole scales with darker brown teeth in the whitish margins; laminar indument often with larger scales persisting in the axils of leaf axes and at the base of costules; sori closer to the midveins than to the margins; sori sometimes subtended by a small scale. (Peru, Bolivia; Andean foothills) ....... 4
– Petiole scales without darker brown teeth; laminar indument without larger scales persisting in the axils of leaf axes and at the base of costules; sori closer to the margins than to the midveins; sori not subtended by a small scale ................................................................................................................ 5
4. Blades ovate-elliptic, basally cuneate; largest pinnae short stalked; largest pinnules pinnatisect almost to the costule, linear-lanceolate, tapering from beyond the middle, bases mostly cordate to truncate ............................................................................................................... C. dombeyi (Desv.) Lellinger
– Blades ± triangular, basally truncate; largest pinnae ± sessile; largest pinnules subentire to pinnatifid by ⅕ the width, triangular-lanceolate, tapering from below the middle, bases mostly cuneate ......... ........................................................................................................... C. pycnocarpa (Kunze) Domin
5. Most pinnae, including medial ones, sessile, pinnules sessile; costae abaxially short villous, often also with blunt-tipped bullate squamules like found on costules and midveins; segment margins always entire ................................................................................................................................................. 6
– Most pinnae, including medial ones, notably stalked, pinnules sessile to stalked; costae abaxially glabrous, with scales and squamules if present not bullate (may be so on costules and veins); segment margins entire to dentate or serrulate at tips ..................................................................................... 8
6. Sori in submarginal line parallel to the margins, squamules on costae and costules abaxially mostly whitish or bicolorous brown to pale brown bullate with white tips; all pinnules ± obtuse. (Colombia (Sierra Nevada de Sta Marta, Cordillera Oriental), Venezuela) .................... C. klotzschiana Domin
– Sori in ± medial line parallel to the midvein, small pinnules obtuse, larger ones acute to attenuate, squamules on costae and costules abaxially concolorous ................................................................. 7
7. Costae and costules abaxially with yellowish white to pale brown squamules. (southern Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia) ........................................................................ C. floribunda (Hook. & Baker) Domin
– Costae and costules abaxially with abundant dark brown bullate squamules. (Colombia, Ecuador) .......................................................................................................... C. pastazensis (Hieron.) Domin
8. Largest pinnules elliptic to slightly oblanceolate, with bases either truncate or inequilaterally cuneate; larger segments acute with dentate or serrulate margins; fertile veins simple (rarely some forked when pinnules more than 20 mm wide) ..................................................................................................... 9
– Largest pinnules linear-lanceolate, with cordate bases; larger segments rounded with (sub-)entire margins; fertile veins simple in smaller sessile pinnules, forked in larger stalked pinnules ...........11
9. Sinuses between lowest segments always acute; fertile veins simple, only forked if pinnule wider than 20 mm. (Caribbean; Guayana shield, Amazonian lowland, Andean foothills) ........................... ................................................................................................................. C. pungens (Willd.) Domin
– Sinuses between lowest segments blunt, widened to a trapezoid shape; fertile veins mostly forked ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
10. Fertile plants trunkless or with trunks only less than 0.5 m tall; fertile leaves vary from simply pinnate-pinnatifid to bipinnate-pinnatisect with wide sinuses between sessile and adnate pinnules (or the lowest segments in fully pinnate pinnules); blade elongate-elliptic with gradually tapering apex, tips of pinnae and pinnules attenuate to caudate with coarsely serrate margins. (southern Venezuela and adjacent Brazil) ........................................................................................... C. neblinae A.R.Sm.
– Fertile plants usually with trunks more than 0.5 m tall; fertile leaves mostly bipinnate-pinnatifid; blade ovate-elliptic with subconform apex, tips of pinnae and pinnules acute to attenuate with finely serrate margins. (Puerto Rico) ............................................. C. ruttenbergiae A.Tejedor & F.Areces
11. Petioles and most leaf axes dark reddish brown to atropupureous; laminar squamules scarce, all pale. (Brazil; Atlantic rainforest) ................................................................. C. praecincta (Kunze) Domin
– Petioles and leaf axes yellowish to pale brown; laminar squamules abundant along costules, mainly whitish bullate ones, few flat ones larger, brown. (northern Andes of Colombia, Venezuela; Trinidad) ........................................................................................... C. squamata (Klotzsch) Domin
description: Published as part of Lehnert, Marcus, Tejedor, Adrian, Kessler, Michael, Rodríguez Duque, Wilson D. & Gallego, Luis Fernando Giraldo, 2025, A reassessment of the Neotropical Cyathea pungens complex (Cyatheaceae), pp. 1-57 in European Journal of Taxonomy 988 on pages 7-9, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2025.988.2883, http://zenodo.org/record/15282277