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Tree fern
A fern with a trunk: a slender fibrous stem several metres high topped by a crown of huge fronds, and a plant form that has barely changed since long before flowering plants existed.
How to recognise it
Look in the damp shaded gullies of Sim's Park and the shola remnants. New fronds uncurl from a tight spiral at the crown - the clearest fiddlehead you will see.
Protection
Cyathea species are listed on CITES Appendix II
Where to see it
Ooty & Coonoor
Sim's Park, opened in 1874 on about 12 hectares at roughly 1,780 m, keeps a natural shola remnant inside a laid-out garden, which is why tree ferns, camellias and magnolias stand there together. The Government Botanical Garden at Ooty, established in 1848, holds a fossilised tree trunk about 20 million years old.
Sim's Park Coonoor · Government Botanical Garden (often)