Cyathea insignis

Cyathea insignis D. C. Eaton, Mem. Am
Acad. II. 8: 216. 1860.
Caudex stout, 5-6 meters high, 10-15 cm. in diameter, unarmed, densely clothed at the summit with linear spinulose-ciliate cinnamon -brown matted scales ; fronds wide-spreading ;
stipe 30-60 cm. long, stout, strongly curved, unarmed but eventually scabrous from the very dense covering of spreading or retrorse scales like those of the candex, naked with age,
toward the base reddish-brown , above mottled reddish and yellowish ; lamina 2-2 . 5 meters long, 1-1.25 meters broad, very deeply tripinnatifid, feubcoriaceous, dark-green above, paler and decidedly glaucous below ; primary rachis similar to the upper stipe, moderately paleaceous, glabrescent, flexuous toward the apex ; secondary rachises similar, yellowish, rustytomentose above, finely scabrous below ; pinnae alternate, sessile, approximate or slightly overlapping, 45-75 cm, long, 15-20 cm. broad, oblong-lanceolate, decurved in the outer part, the apex abruptly acuminate ; pinnules 25-28 pairs, close, patent or the lower ones decurved, sessile, linear-lanceolate, 7.5-10 cm. long, 1.3-1.8 cm. broad, a little enlarged at the base, incised to the costa nearly throughout, the apex commonly attenuate or subcaudate, crenate-serrate ; costae and costules with numerous laciniate cinnamomeous scales ; segments 17-20 pairs, 7-9 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad, oblong, oblique, close, falcate, entire or the lowermost crenately incised, these enlarged and overlapping the rachis, deeply excised at the inner base ; veins 7-10 pairs, mostly once-forked, nearly glabrous; sori 4-8 pairs, medial or inframedial, nearly covering the segment, seated at or below the forking of the veins; indusia subglobose, papyraceous, whitish, conspicuous, at first completely enveloping the sporangia, at maturity opening outward and readily breaking up into several irregular subpersistent segments ; receptacle short, inconspicuous.
Type locality : I^a Guinea, eastern Cuba.
Distribution : Eastern Cuba and Jamaica. Apparently rare in Cuba ; in Jamaica not uncommon at certain points in the Blue Mountains, at from 900 to 1800 meters elevation, growing in open or moist shaded situations.