Cyathea spinulosa

Trunks 4.7-6 m (15-20 ft.) tall, 15 cm in diameter. Stypes persistent, spiny (spines 3-4 mm long at base), 30-40 cm long, 1-2 cm across, greenish, purplish towards the base, fronds tripinnatifid to tripinnate; pinnae 45-60 cm long, the lower pinnae much shortened (15-20 cm long); pinnules 8-10 cm long, shor-stalked, the margins serrate; veins usually once-forked (sometimes in groups of 3 or 4); upper surface hispid alng rachis, rachillae and costae; lower surface glabrous with small thin ovate or irregular scales along costae and veins; stipe scales brown, shiny, 20 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, margins dull. Sori round, large, in rows on either side of casta; indusia thin, membranceous, globose, fugacious.

This is the tallest Taiwan fern. A relatively graceful tree fern that is pretty rare in cultivation. The fronds are very finely divided and lacy. Found in denser, darker forest than C. lepifera. Grows at the highest elevation of any tree fern in Taiwan, from 300 m to over 2500 m alt. It can handle light freezes. Listed in the 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants as rare.