Helecho Rabo de Mico - Sphaeropteris Brunei

Helecho Rabo de Mico - Sphaeropteris Brunei

The Cyatheaceae is the scaly tree fern family and includes the world's tallest tree ferns, which reach heights up to 20 m. They are also very ancient plants, appearing in the fossil record in

 the late Jurassic, though the modern genera likely appeared in the Tertiary. Cyatheaceae is the largest family of tree ferns, including about 500 species. The Cyatheaceae usually have a single, erect trunk-like rhizome (stem). Their fronds (leaves) are also very large, some of the largest in the plant kingdom. Some species have fronds reaching 3–4 m in length, and have a final crown width of some 6 m. The fronds are circinate before unfolding and usually pinnately or bipinnately compound, with leaflets that are deeply pinnately lobed. Since the exact number of species is not known, classification of the Cyatheaceae has had a long and controversial history, and is still undergoing revision. Three tentative clades have been developed: Alsophila, Cyathea, and Sphaeropteris. Some indusia are cup-shaped (cyatheoid), while others are hood-shaped (hemitelioid), enclose the sorus (sphaeropteroid), or scaly. Like most ferns, members of the Cyatheaceae are homosporous. Cyatheaceae are found in both New and Old World tropical wet montane forests and cloud forests, with some species extending into south-temperate regions.