Cyathea stokesii (E.Brown) Hallé & Florence (1986

Lehnert, Marcus, 2011, Species of Cyathea in America related to the western Pacific species C. decurrens, Phytotaxa 26, pp. 39-59 : 45-46

8. Cyathea stokesii (E.Brown) Hallé & Florence (1986 [1987]: 157). Hemitelia stokesii E.Brown (in Brown & Brown 1931: 16). Type:— FRENCH POLYNESIA. Austral (Tubuai) Islands, Rapa Iti: Pariati, 850 ft, Stokes 361 (holotype BISH n.v.).

Distribution and habitat: —Endemic to the island of Rapa between 250– 350 m.

Remarks: — Holttum (1964) assumed that the species was described from “an immature plant, as it is very small.” The type, however, was fertile and mature, and recent photographic evidence confirms that this

species is genuinely small. Brown & Brown (1931) report that the lateral shoots of the trunks are cooked and eaten like potatoes by the locals.