Northern Beaches FloraBaby Sun Rose Blowfly Grass (Briza maxima) Bottlebrushes Coastal Morning Glory (Ipomoea indica) Cyathea cooperi Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream’ Grevillea Poorinda Royal Mantle Native Violet Norfolk Pine Ochna Pigface Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) Scurvy Weed Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) Spiny-headed Mat-rush
Cyathea cooperi, commonly known as the Coin Spot Tree Fern is a popular garden planting in the Sydney northern beaches. Also known as the Lacy Tree Fern, the ferns pictured here are from a garden in Dee Why.
One of the most commonly grown Australian tree-ferns, Cyathea cooperi is distinctive from Cyathea australis, in that it usually has a more slender trunk with distinctive “coin spots” where old fronds have broken off the trunk.
Cyathea cooperi is naturally found growing in the wild in tropical lowlands, along the coast of Queensland and New South Wales.
Sometimes it can be confusing to the novice to tell the difference between C. australis and C. cooperi. The stipes (the stalks that connects the leaf blade to the rhizome of the fern) of C. australis are much thinner and are covered in short, sharp-edged curly red-brown scales, whilst in C. cooperi the colour is tawny brown, long and hairy. Most importantly, C. australis have sharp little bumps – almost spines – at the base and is the give away when comparing these two species.
Check out our Cyathea australis in the Stony Range Regional Botanic Garden.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Phylum: Charophyta
- Class: Equisetopsida
- Subclass: Polypodiidae
- Order: Cyatheales
- Family: Cyatheaceae
- Genus: Cyathea
- Species: Cyathea cooperi
Footnote & References
- Many thanks for species ID to Kirstina Bray and members of Plants Native to the Greater Sydney Region Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/378951047209731/
- Cyathea cooperi (F.Muell.) Domin, PlantNET, New South Wales Flora Online, https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cyathea~cooperi
- Cyathea cooperi (Hook. ex F.Muell.) Domin, Cicatrice Tree Fern, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/taxon/apni/51300013
- Cyathea cooperi, Australian Treefern / Lacy Treefern, Page compiled and maintained by Ian Barclay, https://www.angelfire.com/bc/eucalyptus/treeferns/cooperi.html
- Cyathea australis, Rough Tree Fern / Cyathea cooperi, Lacy Tree Fern, Growing Native Plants, Australian National Herbarium, https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2003/cyathea-spp.html
Northern Beaches FloraBaby Sun Rose Blowfly Grass (Briza maxima) Bottlebrushes Coastal Morning Glory (Ipomoea indica) Cyathea cooperi Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream’ Grevillea Poorinda Royal Mantle Native Violet Norfolk Pine Ochna Pigface Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) Scurvy Weed Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) Spiny-headed Mat-rush
Northern BeachesNorthern Beaches Fauna Northern Beaches Flora
New South WalesBarunguba Montague Island Bourke Blue Mountains Bundeena Central Coast Kosciuszko National Park Mount Kaputar National Park Lower North Shore Northern Beaches Sapphire Coast Snowy Mountains Region South Coast Stony Range Regional Botanic Garden Sydney