Cyathea leichhardtiana
Cyathea leichhardtiana - Prickly Treefern (Subg. SPHAEROPTERIS, sect. Sphaeropteris, subsect. Fourniera)

IDENTIFYING FEATURES:
*  thick felt of short dark scales on crozier... some longer pale scales, especially on stipe-base and crown (the croziers on this treefern I think are especially attractive, the pinna midribs all unfurling together, displaying the curled up pinnules like rows of little round beads ... much the same as C. celebica)
*  slender, rather untidy trunk ... common in mountain rainforests from eastern Victoria to SE Queensland
*  stipe-bases armed with numerous sharp spines
*  sori small and without indusia, not crowded