e-Flora of Thailand

Volume 3 > Part 1 > Year 1979 > Page 105–106 > Cyatheaceae > Cyathea

6. Cyathea gigantea (Wall. ex Hook.) Holttumwfo-0001115244

Gard. Bull. Straits Settlem. 8: 318. 1935; Rev. Fl. Malaya 2: 128. f. 53. 1955; Dansk Bot. Ark. 20: 18. 1961; Fl. Males., Ser II 1: 124. 1963; Kew Bull. 19: 476. 1965; Tagawa & K.Iwats., S.E. Asian Stud. 3(3): 74. 1965; 5: 46. 1967.


Accepted Name : Alsophila gigantea Wall. ex Hook.
Sp. Fil. 1: 53. 1844; R.M.Tryon, Contr. Gray Herb. 200: 32. 1970.



Synonyms & Citations :

Alsophila glabra auct. non. (Blume) Hook.: Bedd., Handb. Ferns Brit. India: 14. 1883; C.Chr., Bot. Tidsskr. 32: 341. 1916; Tardieu & C.Chr. In Fl. Indo-Chine 7(2): 83. 1939.


Description : Trunks up to 2 m or more tall. Stipes up to 50 cm or more long, nearly black or deep castaneous, polished, densely covered with spreading scales; scales up to 1.5 cm long, 2 mm broad, dark brown to nearly black, shining, stiff, edges ferrugineous, rather broad, pale; pneumathodes small, in a single row, distinct; main rachis castaneous to nearly black, minutely scaly, smooth; pinnae up to 70 cm or more long, 25 cm wide, acuminate at apex; pinna-rachis hairy on upper surface, sparsely warty or scaly beneath, dark at base, paler towards apex; pinnules about 2.5 cm apart, patent or ascending, straight or slightly falcate lanceolate, caudate-acuminate at apex, cordate at base, very shortly stalked, up to 12 cm long, 2 cm wide, lobed to more than ⅓ way towards costae; lobes round subdeltoid, round at apex, oblique, falcate, serrate at margin, up to 4 mm broad, with narrow sinus; texture thin, papyraceous, green, veins pinnate, veinlets simple, all free. Sori close to costule or medial, naked.


Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Rai (Doi Tung), Chiang Mai (Kang Kaet, Doi Suthep, Doi Inthanon, Fang), Tak (Doi Musoe); NORTH-EASTERN: Loei (Phu Luang); SOUTH-EASTERN: Chanthanuri (Khao Soi Dao, Khao Sabap), Trat (Ko Chang, Ko Kut); SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi (Wangka); PENINSULAR: Ranong (Muang Laen, Khao Nom Sao), Surat Thani (Ban Don, Khao Nong, Klong Ton), Phangnga (Takua Pa), Nakhon Si Thammarat (Khao Luang, Chawang Nok Nang), Satun, Yala (Ban Chana).


Distribution : E Himalaya (type), S India, Ceylon, Burma, S China, Indochina, Malaya, Sumatra, W Java.


Ecology : On mountain slopes usually in dense tropical evergreen forests, lowland and in lower montane forests to about 1,300 m alt.


Vernacular : Maha sadam (มหาสะดำ)(Southeastern); maha sadaeng (มหาสะแดง)(Peninsular); kut ngong (กูดโง่ง), kut yong (กูดโย่ง), kut hang nok yung (กูดหางนกยูง)(Northern); kha-su-do (คาซูโด)(Karen-Northern).


Uses: Fibrous trunk used for orchid media.


Notes: This species is sometimes confused with Cyathea glabra, from which it is distinct in having sessile or very shortly stalked pinnules, the lobes more triangular, more deeply lobed, distinctly serrate at margin, and the scales without marginal teeth. Cyathea glabra is known in western Malesia, but not from Thailand.


E-version notes : For more details see Ferns of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.


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