Alsophila balanocarpa (D. C. Eat.) D. S. Conant

Cyathea balanocarpa D. C. Eaton, Mem. Am
Acad. II. 8: 215. 1860.
Caudex erect, 2-A-.5 meters high, 8 cm. or more in diameter, rough above with stipebases of previous seasons ; fronds several, erect or slightly spreading, narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 meters long, 40-70 cm. broad in the middle, the apex acute or acuminate, the base short-attenuate, finally abruptly reduced, the basal pinnae short and distant ; stipe 10 cm. or more long, 1-1.5 cm. in diameter, light-brownish, densely and minutely furfuraceous, armed with numerous stout ebeneous shining curved spines 4-6 mm. long, and clothed with scattering brownish linear-lanceolate scales 5-7 mm. long; rachis spiny or tuberculate at the base, above light-brownish, minutely furfuraceous ; pinnae numerous, approximate, slightly oblique, sessile, narrowly deltoid-lanceolate, the middle ones 25-37 cm. long, 4-7 cm. broad, with 35-50 pairs of spaced pinnules below the crenulate caudate apex ; pinnules linear-oblong, the lower ones straight, free, auriculate at the inner base, the margins irregularly and deeply dentate-crenate, the upper pinnules similarly auriculate, gradually adnate, subfalcate, the margins subentire or interruptedly sinuatecrenate ; secondary rachises furfuraceous with small lacerate yellowish dark-tipped scales, with yellowish hairs intermixed ; costae similarly clothed, but also with numerous yellowish bullate imbricate ciliate scales ; veins evident, 12-18 pairs, close, 1-3-forked, or those of the lobes mostly pinnately forked; sori 8-15 pairs, near the conspicuously elevated costa, faced outward, occupying most of the pinnule ; indusium hemispheric, reddish-brown with age ; receptacle large, capitate, setiferous, protruding.
Type locality : Eastern Cuba.
Distribution : Mountains of eastern Cuba, on partially wooded mountain slopes, at an altitude of from 1000 to 1200 meters.