Alsophila cuspidata (Kunze) D. S. Conant

Cyathea punctifera Christ, in Pittier, Prim. Fl
Costar. 3: 40. 1901.
Caudex erect, 7 meters high, 30 cm. in diameter, densely covered with brown adventive roots * stipe stout, '3 cm. in diameter at the base, bearing scattered slender purplishblack spines 4-7 mm. long and clothed -with a dense covering of deciduous subcrispate short slender grayish-yellow irregularly serrate scales ; lamina very ample, deeply tripinnatifid, the primary rachis brownish or with age rich purplish-brown and lustrous, with small deciduous scales like those of the stipe and squamulose-scabrous with very minute darkbrownish substellate scales, glabrescent ; pinnae 14 or 15 pairs, alternate, sessile or shortpetiolate (up to 1.5 cm.), lanceolate, 80-100 cm. long, 16-22 cm. broad, abruptly longacuminate, the secondary rachis sulcate and dark-pilose above, below light-brownish or with age purplish-brown, with a subsquamulose covering of minute dark substellate scales, a few larger light-colored ones subpersistent at the sides, eventually glabrate, lustrous ; pinnules 25-33 pairs, approximate, sessile, rigidly herbaceous, bright-green, nearly concolorous, patent (or the lower ones retrorse), oblong, 8-11.5 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad, the apex abruptly caudate and lightly crenate, the costa dark, densely strigose above with darkbrown hairs, below laxly short-furfuraceous with grayish-brown stellate squamules and in the outer portion rusty-pilose ; segments 23-25 pairs, linear-oblong, 8-12 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad above the slightly dilatate base, oblique, parallel, subfalcate, obtuse, the margins entire or nearly so, scarcely revolute, the costule clothed with small grayish stellate hairs, these extending along the veins and margins of the segment ; veins 10-13 pairs, dark, evident, mostly once-forked near the base ; sori 2-8 pairs, seated at the forking of the veins ; indusium globose, dark-brown, very firm, bearing numerous persistent hairs, bursting irregularly into 3 or 4 large erect saccate lobes ; receptacle globose, setiferous.
Type locality : Forests of Tuis, Costa Rica, altitude 650 meters. Distribution : Costa Rica and eastern Nicaragua.

Alsophila cuspidata, synonym Cyathea cuspidata, is a widespread species of tree fern native to Central and South America, where it grows in tropical rain forest up to the montane zone, as well as in open sites, on riverbanks and cleared pastureland at an altitude of 0–800 m. Its natural distribution covers Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Amazon Basin, Brazil and French Guiana. This species often has multiple trunks, which may be 15 m tall and about 10 cm in diameter. They are covered in black spines and together form a medium-sized, feathery clump. Fronds are bipinnate and 2–3 m long. The rachis and stipe are brown to dark brown and are covered with scales. The scales are bicoloured, having a dark brown to blackish centre and a pale, whitish margin. Pinnule veins sometimes have small, brown, star-shaped scales. Sori are round and form on either side of the pinnule midvein. They are covered by globose indusia.

In cultivation, A. cuspidata should be provided with high humidity and warm temperatures. It should not be exposed to frost.