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Alsophila kermadecensis

Alsophila kermadecensis
Photo: Unknown author, CC0

Alsophila kermadecensis is a tree fern native to Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands, growing in damp forest and scrub. It is a species that wants moist conditions and a warm, sheltered spot, and it is rarely grown outside its native habitat.

Family
Cyatheaceae (Cyathe family)
Grows as
Tree, Fern
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the root zone consistently moist and never let it dry out.
Soil
Rich, humus-heavy, free-draining mix kept moist.
Temperature
18–28 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
Kermadec Is.
Climate
wet tropical

About

Alsophila kermadecensis, synonym Cyathea kermadecensis, is a species of tree fern endemic to Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands, where it is locally common in damp, and sometimes drier, forest and scrub. The trunk of this plant is erect, slender (to about 4.5 inches (eleven centimeters) diameter) and up to 20 m (65 feet) tall. It has a massive basal swelling, composed mostly of adventitious roots, which can be up to 13 feet (four meters) high and 6.5 feet (two meters) thick. The trunk is often covered with scars of old stipe-bases. Fronds are tripinnate and up to 4 m in length. The rachis and stipe are both brown in colouration and bear basal scales that are brown, glossy, and often twisted. Sori are borne on either side of the pinnule midvein. They are covered by hood-like indusia.

Large and Braggins (2004) note that A. kermadecensis is similar to Alsophila cunninghamii.

Other Alsophila plants

Alsophila abbottii · Alsophila acanthophora · Alsophila acuminata · Alsophila alderwereltii · Alsophila alleniae · Alsophila alpina · Alsophila amboinensis · Alsophila aneitensis · Alsophila apiculata · Alsophila apoensis · Rough tree fern · Alsophila balanocarpa

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alsophila kermadecensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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