Cyathea squamata Domin (Domin 1930
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 squamata

description: Cyathea squamata (Klotzsch) Domin
Fig. 12B
Cyathea squamata (Klotzsch) Domin (Domin 1930: 160). – Alsophila squamata Klotzsch (Klotzsch 1845: 541).
– Type: VENEZUELA • Distrito Federal, Caracas; J. Moritz 218b; lectotype: BR [BR0000006988319] image!, designated by Lehnert 2016; probable isolectotypes [labelled “ J. Moritz ”]: B [B 20 000020920, B 20 0078702]!, NY [00148705] image!, P [P00642463, P00642464, P00642465, P00642466]!.
Cyathea microphyllodes Domin (Domin 1929a: 263), nom. nov. for Alsophila microphylla Klotzsch (Klotzsch 1844 [1845]: 541), not Cyathea microphylla Mett. (Mettenius 1856: 23, pl. 3 figs 1–6). – Trichipteris microphylla (Klotzsch) R.M.Tryon (Tryon 1970: 46).
– Type: VENEZUELA • Distrito Federal; Caracas, J. Moritz 110; lectotype: B [B 20 0000208]!, designated here; isolectotype: BR [BR0000006988319] image!.
Alsophila caracasana Klotzsch var. fendleriana Domin (Domin 1929b: 96).
– Type: VENEZUELA • Aragua; Near Colonia Tovar, A. Fendler 53; lectotype: BR [BR0000006987985] image!, designated by Lehnert 2016; isolectotypes: F [V0075843F] image!, GH [00020400, 00020401, 00020402, 00020403] image!, K? n.v., MO [MO-694350]!, NY!, US [1010709] image!, YU [YU.000669] image!.
Etymology
The specific epithet refers to the scaly indument found on the leaves.
Selected material studied
COLOMBIA – Tolima • Mariquita; 1200 m a.s.l.; Jan. 1848; J.L. Linden 1021; W. – Cundinamarca • La Palma, Murca valley, Cordillera de Helicon, 10 km SE of Gachalá; 2300 m a.s.l.; 30 Sep. 1944; M.L. Grant 10322; US. – Norte de Santander • Cordillera Oriental, region del Sarare, entre el Alto del Loro y el Alto de Santa Ines; 1800–2200 m a.s.l.; 18–21 Oct. 1941; J. Cuatrecasas, R.E. Schultes & E. Smith 12513; F, GH. – Locality unknown • H. Karsten s.n.; PRC.
VENEZUELA – Aragua • La Victoria-Colonia Tovar rd., 11.5 km N of Pie de Cerro; 10°22′ N, 67°20′ W; 1950 m a.s.l.; 14 Jan. 1982; J. Luteyn, S. Mori, N. Holmgren & J.A. Steyermark 8247; NY. – Distrito Federal • Cerro El Avila, S slopes; 10º32.6′ N, 66º52.5′ W; 2000–2050 m a.s.l.; 11 Nov. 1991; W. Meier 902; UC. – Mérida • Near summit of Cerro San Isidro, above La Carbonera; 2430–2745 m a.s.l.; 22 Apr. 1944; J.A. Steyermark 56029; GH, US. – Miranda • headwaters of the Quebrada Chacaito; 10º33′ N, 66º52′ W; 1990 m a.s.l.; 28 Feb. 1992; W. Meier 1763; UC. – Vargas • Monumento Natural Pico Codazzi, road Colonia Tovar-La Victoria, sector Matalpo, road Los Colonos-Pto. Cruz, 2.5 km behind Arco, SE of tourist center Villa Bahareque border with Edo. Aragua; 10º26′ N, 67º13.5′ W; 1850–1950 m a.s.l.; 5 Aug. 1999; J. Mostacero & R. Castillo 261; UC. – Yaracuy • Nirgua, Cerro Azul (Tucuragua), near the limit with Edo. Cojedes, mainly of peak S of Hacienda Venezolano; 9°59′ N, 68°37′ W; 1400–1690 m a.s.l.; 24 Jan. 1999; W. Meier & O. Kunert 4591; UC.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO – Trinidad • Port of Spain; [ca 10°40′32″ N, 61°29′27″ W]; Apr. 1874; C.E.O. Kuntze 1684; NY.
Description
Trunks 0.1–3.0 m tall, 5–7 cm diam., presumably covered with old petiole bases, due to these generally spiny; apices hidden between petiole bases; without adventitious buds. Leaves 120–200 cm long. Petioles 20–40 cm long, muricate to weakly aculeate with prickles to 2 mm long, dark brown to blackish, rarely dark stramineous, opaque, basaly with persistent scurf consisting of appressed reddish brown trichomidia and erect, white, lanceolate to ovate squamules to 1 mm long with subentire to erose margins; hairs absent; petioles basally with a discontinuous line of distant aerophores to 6.0 × 1.0 mm on each side, gray brown and inconspicuous in dried material. Petiole scales long lanceolate, to 15.0–25.0 × (1.5–)2.0– 3.5(–4.0) mm, rather thin textured, bases cordate, pseudopeltately attached, apices long attenuate, straight to falcate, often strongly undulate; proximal scales concordantly to discordantly bicolorous, auburn to yellowish brown with white margins, distal ones often almost concolorous stramineous to white with a dark apical streak; differentiated margins without setae or teeth, usually persistent. Blades to 180 × 120– 140 cm, bipinnate-pinnatifid, firm herbaceous, matte, dark-green adaxially, dark olive green abaxially; apices gradually reduced. Rachises inermous to sparsely verrucate proximally, dark brown abaxially and adaxially; pubescent with tan to brown multicellular hairs 1.0– 1.5 mm long, antrorsely curved and persistent adaxially, abaxially glabrescent with few thin hairs and appressed trichomidia, leaving the cortex smooth. Largest pinnae 24–40 cm long, pinnae subsessile or stalked to 1.0(–1.7) cm, 15–20 pairs per leaf, patent to weakly ascending, alternate, inarticulate, distally narrowly green-alate, distal segments simply adnate before ending in a pinnatifid apical section; basal pairs smaller than than the medial pinnae, reflexed. Costae to 1.5–2.0 mm wide, inermous to sparsely verrucate, dark brown to grayish brown abaxially, darker adaxially; glabrous abaxially, with tan to brown, antrorsely curved multicellular hairs 0.5–1.0 mm long adaxially; junctures of costae and rachises not swollen, abaxially often black when dried, each with an inconspicuous planar, elliptic aerophore, to 2 × 1 mm, dark orange-brown. Largest pinnules 45–70 × 11–17 mm, short-stalked to 3 mm, inarticulate, 1.5–2.0(–2.2) cm between the stalks/costules, pinnules lanceolate, rarely linear-oblong, truncate to cordate basally, long-acute to attenuate apically with subentire to weakly crenulate margins; costules dark carnose to dark grayish brown adaxially and abaxially, proximally often darker brown; adaxially strongly prominent, ridged, and densely hairy with tan to brown, antrorsely curved multicellular hairs to 1.0 mm long, abaxially weakly prominent, glabrous or glabrescent with appressed, tan to brown unicellular trichomidia and thin tortuous hairs; also with white to brown squamules, bullate ones to 1.0 mm long, flat lanceolate ones to 3 × 2 mm, with entire margins and short-attenuate tips; costules basally without pneumathodes. Segments to 7.0–10.0 × 3.0–4.0 mm, rarely remote and then connected by laminar tissue, patent to strongly ascending, distally falcate, tips obtuse to rounded, proximal segments alternate to subopposite, usually a bit shorter than following segments; sinuses acute to obtuse, to 1.0(–2.0) mm wide; margins subentire to crenate; margins not differently incised in proximal segments of a pinnule; veins planar on both sides or weakly protruding adaxially, dark carnose to dark grayish brown; veins adaxially glabrous except for some multicellular hairs to 0.5 mm long on the midveins, abaxially glabrous except for some appressed trichomidia; midveins with some pure white to light brown squamules, mostly bullate ones to 1.0 × 0.5 mm; sterile and fertile veins simple or forked. Sori 1.0– 1.2 mm diam., medial to supramedial, indusia lacking; receptacles globose, 0.3–0.4 mm diam., paraphyses few to numerous, stiff, hyaline, tan to brown, shorter than the sporangia (0.2–0.3 mm long). Spores tetrahedral-globose, pale yellow to white, appearing hyaline.
Distribution and ecology
Magdalena Valley and Cordillera Oriental of Colombia, Cordillera de la Costa in Venezuela at elevations of 1200–2430(–2740) m a.s.l.; one sterile specimen recorded from Trinidad (Barrington 1978).
Remarks
Cyathea squamata has only rarely been confused with C. pungens, despite sharing the diagnostic characters of being exindusiate, having bicolorous brown petiole scales with white margins, and whitish bullate squamules on the blade. Cyathea squamata differs in having more pinna pairs per blade, generally smaller pinnules with notable short stalks and cordate bases, by which means the blade appears more delicate and finely dissected than in C. pungens. Moreover, C. squamata has a mixture of larger and smaller squamules on the axes and veins abaxially, giving it an untidy appearance, whereas the squamules in C. pungens are so small and scarce that they are hardly noticeable.
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 40-42, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2025.988.2883, http://zenodo.org/record/15282277