Rare fern species found in Sinharaja

Disna Mudalige

A new rare and endemic Sri Lankan tree fern species has been found in the Sinharaja forest reserve during a recent field work. This field work was conducted by a group of local and foreign researchers. The new species is named Cyathea srilankansis Ranil.

“The tree fern family Cyatheaceae consists of about 700 species worldwide with diversity centers in tropical wet mountain regions. In Sri Lanka, this tree fern family is represented by a single genus which include five species,” Peradeniya University Agriculture Faculty Crop Science Department Assistant Lecturer Ranil Rajapaksa told the Daily News.

“During our field work four mature individuals of Cyathea srilankansis Ranil were observed together with a small population of immature plants. All individuals were clustered in a single locality. Specimens collected from four mature and four juvenile plants were used to describe the species,” he said.

He said this species was first identified in 2007, but about three years were spent to confirm whether it was a new species. Sinharaja Forest Reserve is expected to be the one and only locale of this new species as found out by the investigations up to now.

“All plants of the new tree fern species were recorded from roadside banks and open areas in Sinharaja forest associated with sun loving plants. No similar species have been reported from Southern India, Southeast Asia or Australia. The new species is somewhat morphologically similar to two tree fern species found in Kenya and Tanzania. However it can be differentiated from both of them,” he said.