Cyathea manniana

Spiny tree fern
Habit in Bunga Forest, Zimbabwe
Spines on trunk
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Pteridopsida
Order: Cyatheales
Family: Cyatheaceae
Genus: Cyathea
Subgenus: Cyathea
Section: Alsophila
Species: C. manniana
Binomial name
Cyathea manniana
William Hooker
Synonyms
  • Alsophila manniana (Hook.) R. M. Tryon
  • Cyathea deckenii Kuhn
  • Cyathea engleri Hieron. ex Brause
  • Cyathea laurentiorum C. Chr.
  • Cyathea manniana var. preussii Tardieu
  • Cyathea preussii Diels
  • Cyathea sellae Pirotta
  • Cyathea usambarensis Hieron. ex Brause

The spiny tree fern or sheshino (Cyathea manniana Hook.) is a tree fern and one of 326 species of Cyathea. It is readily identified by the fierce spines on its trunk, and is found in deep shade, next to mountain streams in evergreen forest in Angola, Annobon, Bioko, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tomé, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Tree ferns or Cyatheaceae include 15 genera with a pantropical distribution of some 500 accepted species and some 1,200 species yet to be assessed. [1] [2]

C. manniana has a slender trunk (10 cm diameter), reaching some 7 m in height, sometimes producing lateral stems which initially function as props or stilts, but later may form new trunks. Fronds are leathery. Stems are protected by spines; aphlebia are absent in the crown of the stem.

Caudex up to 10 cm. in diarn., and up to 6 m. tall, erect, slender, occasionally sending down lateral "prop" stems which are eventually creeping and may form a new upright caudex. Frond arching to horizontal, firmly chartaceous. Stipe c. 30 cm. long, light- to very-dark-purplish-brown, sharply spinose, the spines at the base up to 4 mm. long, and with a thin rufous tomentum when young. Lamina up to 2.4 x 1 m., 3-pinnate, ovate in outline; pinnae up to 52 x 20 cm., oblong, acute, pinnate into very narrowly shortly attenuate pinnate pinnules; pinnule segments very narrowly oblong, somewhat falcate, acute, subentire to crenate-dentate; ventral surface glabrous except for dense stiff curved pale-brown hairs along the costa and costules; dorsal surface often glaucous and with often imbricate lanceolate lacerate brown scales up to 3 mm. long along the costules and costae of the pinnae segments; rhachis light-brown with scattered small prickles, glabrous at maturity. Sori up to 9 per pinnule segment, c. 0.8 mm. in diam.; indusium unequally cupuliform.
Original Hooker description from 1865

This species was first described by William Hooker in 'Synopsis Filicum' 21 (1865), based on a specimen collected on Fernando Po by Gustav Mann (1836–1916), a German botanist who led expeditions to West Africa and was also a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and consequently named after Mann [3]

Medicinal

An infusion of the pith and young leaves is used against a variety of abdominal and gastric complaints, to ease childbirth and against tapeworms. [4]

External links

References

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