Alsophila spinulosa(Hook.) R.M.Tryon

WFO wfo-0001126562 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-15 / obs. 173184682
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by Moogoo Lee
fig. b Moogoo Lee, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171979412
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by lansan
fig. c lansan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136926928
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by lansan
fig. d lansan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136926536
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129773151
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109724217
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by jh4165tw
fig. g jh4165tw, CC0 1.0 / obs. 105368011
Alsophila spinulosa, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. h Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 118886107

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
04006551
Filed as
Alsophila spinulosa (Wall. ex Hook.) R.M.Tryon
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
C. B. Clarke 1886-02-03
Origin
IN
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 19 botanical countries

Regions where Alsophila spinulosa is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanTibetAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaIndiaLaosMyanmarNepalThailandVietnamWest Himalaya Nansei-shoto
Native distribution of Alsophila spinulosa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Kazan-retto KZN
Nansei-shoto NNS
Ogasawara-shoto OGA
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT

Not drawn on the map: Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,791 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.2 °C 10.4 °C 13.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.4 °C 28.1 °C 30.8 °C
Annual rainfall 2,603 mm 3,920 mm 4,831 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 132 mm 483 mm 851 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,791 research-grade observations of Alsophila spinulosa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Alsophila boninsimensis Christ
  • Alsophila confucii Christ
  • Alsophila decipiens J.Scott ex Bedd.
  • Alsophila fauriei Christ
  • Alsophila taiwaniana Nakai
  • Amphicosmia decipiens (J.Scott ex Bedd.) Bedd.
  • Cyathea austrosinica Christ
  • Cyathea boninsimensis Copel.
  • Cyathea confucii Copel.
  • Cyathea decipiens (J.Scott) Clarke & Baker
  • Cyathea fauriei Copel.
  • Cyathea spinulosa
  • Cyathea spinulosa Wall. ex Hook.
  • Cyathea taiwaniana Nakai
  • Hemitelia beddomei C.B.Clarke
  • Hemitelia boninsimensis Christ; Diels
  • Hemitelia decipiens (J.Scott ex Bedd.) J.Scott

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.