Cyathea wendlandii (Kuhn) Domin (1929a: 263)

Lehnert, Marcus, 2016, A synopsis of the exindusiate species of Cyathea (Cyatheaceae-Polypodiopsida) with bipinnate-pinnatifid or more complex fronds, with a revision of the C. lasiosora complex, Phytotaxa 243 (1), pp. 1-53 : 29-31

27. Cyathea wendlandii (Kuhn) Domin (1929a: 263) ( Fig. 7 ). Alsophila wendlandii Kuhn (1869: 158) . Trichipteris wendlandii (Kuhn) Tryon (1970: 46) . Type:— COSTA RICA. Heredia: San Miguel, without date, Wendland 761 (lectotype B-20-0000417!, here designated, isolectotypes NY-00148812! [fragment of B], US-00066221! [fragment of B]).

Alsophila latisecta Christ (1906: 185) . Cyathea latisecta (H.Christ) Domin (1929a: 262) . Type:— COSTA RICA. San José: Valle del Río Navarro, 1400 m, 1905, K. Wercklé 16767 [Herb. Christ] (holotype P-00355177!, isotypes NY-00148694! [fragment of Herb. Christ], US-00048708!).

Trunks to 4 m tall, slender, 6–8(–14) cm diameter, without old petiole bases, revealing dark gray-brown frond scars; epidermis densely covered with dark brown, lanceolate scales similar to petiole scales; apices hidden between petiole bases; adventitious buds not reported. Fronds to 270(–350) cm long, clustered at apices, forming a stretched fascicle, patent to arching. Petioles to 70 cm long, inermous or proximally muricate with spines to 1 mm long, dark brown to dark auburn, matte, with dense scurf consisting of appressed brown to castaneous squamules to 0.7(–1.0) mm long, often conglomerated to an amorphous mass; adaxially with few to many dark reddish brown, antrorsely curved, multicellular hairs to 1 mm long; petioles basally with brown lenticels, hardly or not detectible in dried material; only basally deciduously scaly. Petiole scales narrowly lanceolate, to 20.0–25.0 × (1.5–)2.0–3.0 mm, thick-textured, bases cordate, pseudopeltately attached, straight to falcate, apices long acute, undulate but not twisted; scales concordantly bicolorous, dark brown to castaneous with white to golden brown margins; differentiated margins narrow, fragile, the cell rows strongly exerted, shortly fimbriate. Laminae to 200 × 120 cm, bipinnate-pinnatifid, ovate-elliptic, firm-herbaceous to chartaceous, matte, dark green adaxially, often blackish when dried, grayish green abaxially; apices gradually reduced. Rhachises inermous, dark brown to castaneous abaxially and adaxially, pubescent with reddish brown multicellular hairs 1.0– 1.5 mm long, apressed and persistent adaxially, ephemeral, thin and curved abaxially, leaving the cortex smooth if abraded; also with reddish brown scurf similar to petiole scurf. Pinnae to 65 cm long, subsessile or stalked 0.5–1.0 cm, (8–)10–14 pairs per frond, patent to ascending, alternate, inarticulate, distally distinctly green-alate, with distal segments weakly decurrently adnate before ending in a pinnatifid apical section; basal pinna pairs not much smaller than the medial pinnae, weakly reflexed. Costae to 3 mm wide, inermous, ochre to castaneous abaxially, darker adaxially, with reddish brown, multicellular hairs to 1.0– 1.5 mm long, adaxially appressed, abaxially spreading, also with scurf of appressed reddish brown squamules and branched hairs; junctures of costae and rhachises weakly swollen abaxially, each with an inconspicuous, planar to weakly protruding, elliptic aerophore to 3 × 1 mm, often black when dried. Pinnules to 110 × 18–25 mm, sessile to subsessile (stalked to 1 mm), inarticulate, 1.5–2.0 cm between the stalks/costules, linear-oblong to lanceolate, truncate to weakly cordate basally, long-acuminate to attenuate apically with serrulate to crenulate margins; costules blackish brown to dark carnose, rarely atropurpureous adaxially and abaxially; adaxially strongly prominent, ridged, and densely hairy with whitish to tan, antrorsely curved, multicellular hairs to 1 mm long, abaxially weakly to strongly prominent, without hairs but with few to many brown, flat to subbullate, weakly clathrate squamules to 3.0 mm long, sometimes with remnants of scurf similar to that of the costules; costules basally without pneumathodes, blackened in dried specimens. Largest segments 7–12 × 3–5 mm, proximal ones patent, distal ones ascending, falcate, tips obtuse to rounded, proximal segments usually opposite or nearly so, rarely alternate, not shorter than following segments, never remote; sinuses acute to obtuse, to 2 mm wide; margins mostly crenulate, sometimes subentire or shallowly crenate; margins usually not differently incised in proximal segments of a pinnule but may be a bit more strongly incised in large pinnules; veins planar adaxially and abaxially, abaxially blackish to dark carnose, ending shortly before the margins, adaxially widened, deeply orange-brown; veins adaxially and abaxially glabrous; midveins with few, brown bullate squamules to 2.0 × 0.5 mm and sparse brown scurf; sterile veins simple or forked, fertile veins forked. Sori 1 mm diameter, proximal to subproximal, in the fork of veins, mature dark orange-brown; indusia lacking; receptacles globose, rather small, 0.3–0.4 mm diameter, paraphyses numerous, distally contorted, whitish to tan, longer than the sporangia (0.5–0.6 mm long) and persisting in over-mature sori. Spores exospore smooth, finely porate, perispore finely baculate ( Gastony 1979).

Distribution and habitat: — Costa Rica and Panama, at 500–1400 m in moist montane forests.

Specimens examined: — COSTA RICA. Heredia: National Park Braulio Carrillo, transect trail between OTS- Station La Selva and Volcán Barva, 600 m, 23 July 2002, Kluge 2177 (GOET), 800 m, 24 August 2002, J. Kluge 2921 (GOET), sendero educacional “Las Palmeras”, 10°09.663’N, 83°56.234’W, 500 m, 16 November 2012, M. Lehnert 2636 & 2637 (BONN, INB). PANAMA. Veraguas: Santa Fe, 08°33’N, 81°08’W, 670 m, 28 June 1987, T.B. Croat 66966 (MO!).

Remarks: — Cyathea wendlandii replaces C. lasiosora in Central America. Both are identical in coloration and in the length of paraphyses. They differ, however, greatly in the proportions of the petiole scales (ovate-lanceolate with rather short tips and wide margins in C. lasiosora vs. narrowly lanceolate with elongate tips and narrow margins in C. wendlandii ), the pinnules (large pinnules notably stalked vs. all pinnules subsessile with an indistinct stalk to 1 mm long), and in the soral position (± medial vs. proximal to subproximal). The scurf, although of identical appearance in both species, consists of different components (dissected squamules, branched hairs and trichomidia in C. lasiosora vs. small lanceolate squamules in C. wendlandii ). Furthermore the segments of C. lasiosora may bear hairs to 2 mm long on the veins (mainly abaxially) while the segments of C. wendlandii are glabrous abaxially except for trichomidia and squamules.

The weak presence of hairs (except for the relatively abundant hairs adaxially on the leaf axes that are found in most species of Cyathea ) clearly separates C. wendlandii from the other species discussed here. The weak and uneven pubescence abaxially on the leaf axes of C. wendlandii is comparable to the condition found in glabrescent individuals of C. lasiosora .

Cyathea wendlandii is superficially similar to species of the genus Alsophila , but it can be distinguished by the lack of dark setae in the scale margins, which are characteristic of Neotropical Alsophila .

Further species of the Cyathea pungens group

Figures

FIGURE 7. Cyathea wendlandii. A. Petiole scale. B. Detail of petiole scurf. C. Fertile pinnule, abaxially. D. Fertile segment, abaxially. (Kluge 2177, GOET).