Slender Tree-Fern
Cyathea cunninghamii
Family Cyatheaceae
About
Alsophila cunninghamii, synonym Cyathea cunninghamii, also known as the gully tree fern and slender tree fern, is a species of tree fern indigenous to New Zealand including North Island, South Island and Chatham Islands; also to Victoria, possibly New South Wales, southeastern Queensland, and Tasmania in Australia. It grows in damp forest, often emerging from stream gullies and riverbanks.
How to spot it
A. cunninghamii is an uncommon, slow-growing tree fern reaching up to 20 m in height and with a trunk diameter of 6–15 cm, occasionally as much as 20 cm. Fronds are tri- to tetrapinnate and 3 m or more in length. The rachis and stipe are slender, black brown, warty and covered with brown scales. Sori occur along each side of the pinnule midvein and are covered by hood-like indusia.
Documented on these trails
Found in
- Great Otway National Park — Great Ocean Road & the Otways hikes