Species
+

Sphaeropteris cooperi (Hook. ex F.Muell.) R.M.Tryon

ATF, Australian tree fern, Australian tree fern, Lacy tree fern, Scaly tree fern, Cooper's tree fern, Cooper's cyathea, Straw tree fern, Giant scaly tree fern, Cicatrice Tree Fern

Climate known 23 photographs Fern or moss
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sphaeropteris cooperi, synonym Cyathea cooperi, also known as lacy tree fern, scaly tree fern, coin spot tree fern, or Cooper's tree fern, is a tree fern native to Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sphaeropteris cooperi”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Sphaeropteris

Sphaeropteris is a genus of tree ferns in the family Cyatheaceae. It has been treated as a subgenus within the genus Cyathea, but is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sphaeropteris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cyatheaceae
Described by
(Hook. ex F.Muell.) R.M.Tryon
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
677 in range· 553 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1304mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 177 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a fern or moss by Cyatheaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1304 mm a year, wettest February at 177 mm, driest September at 58 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Alsophila australis var. cervicalis F.M.Bailey; Alsophila australis var. excelsa (Endl.) F.M.Bailey; Alsophila australis var. pallida F.M.Bailey; Alsophila cooperi Hook. ex F.Muell.; Alsophila excelsa var. cooperi (Hook. ex F.Muell.) Domin and 5 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by Cyatheaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (938 mm of 1304 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.3 °C against a yearly mean of 18.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1304 mm a year, wettest February at 177 mm, driest September at 58 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1304 mm a year at the habitat, 938 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 177 mm, driest September at 58 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 924 mm to 1971 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.6 °C, the absolute minimum 5.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.6 °C to 13.1 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a fern or moss, 5 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1304 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 365 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 19–42RH 56–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 365 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 24–2926 / 24–2824 / 23–2722 / 20–2519 / 18–2217 / 15–2116 / 15–2018 / 16–2121 / 18–2423 / 20–2624 / 21–2726 / 23–28
Night °C20 / 17–2220 / 17–2218 / 15–2116 / 13–1913 / 10–1611 / 7–1410 / 6–1310 / 6–1412 / 9–1515 / 12–1817 / 14–1918 / 16–21
Rain mm136 / 86–377177 / 124–414138 / 84–370129 / 80–207111 / 61–17796 / 45–13066 / 38–9361 / 33–7958 / 32–7285 / 55–105113 / 87–152134 / 82–207
DLI40 / 37–4236 / 34–3731 / 30–3426 / 24–3121 / 18–2619 / 16–2421 / 18–2627 / 24–3134 / 31–3938 / 37–4340 / 39–4342 / 40–43
RH %63 / 59–6864 / 61–7063 / 60–6962 / 59–6961 / 58–6859 / 57–6658 / 56–6556 / 54–6456 / 54–6258 / 56–6361 / 58–6561 / 59–67

Each figure is the median across the 365 grid cells holding the 648 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2476:6623 (-33.825, 151.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 365 distinct grid cells holding the 648 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2476:6623 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.00_151.250, lapse-corrected +10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 42 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland· introduced: Azores, Madeira, Tanzania, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Mauritius, Réunion, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, Vanuatu, Hawaii
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.749, 151.168 · in the densest population, 331 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 677 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 553 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 939 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 677 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperiSphaeropteris cooperi

Photographs: Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Dave Richardson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sphaeropteris cooperi, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Growth, Leaf Characteristics, and Spore Production in Native and Invasive Tree Ferns in Hawaii
Leilani Z. Durand, Guillermo Goldstein (2001) · American Fern Journal
A review on global ferns invasions: mechanisms, management and control
Gbenga Festus Akomolafe, Zakaria B. Rahmad (2018) · Journal of Research in Forestry, Wildlife and Environment
Assessing the invasion risk of traded alien ferns using species distribution models
Emily J. McCulloch-Jones, Tineke Kraaij, Neil R. Crouch, Katelyn T. Faulkner (2023) · NeoBiota
An assessment of the invasion status of terrestrial alien ferns (Polypodiophyta) in South Africa
Emily J. McCulloch-Jones, Tineke Kraaij, Chloé Guerbois, Desika Moodley (2020) · South African Journal of Botany
A novel approach for the metric analysis of fern fronds: Growth and architecture of the Mesozoic fern Weichselia reticulata in the light of modern ferns
Candela Blanco‐Moreno, Bernard Gómez, Jesús Marugán‐Lobón, Véronique Daviero‐Gomez (2019) · PLoS ONE
The Tree Fern Highland Lace is a Cultivar of Sphaeropteris cooperi
Daniel G. Yansura, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki (2012) · American Fern Journal
Ontogeny of the Sporangia of Sphaeropteris cooperi
Kenneth A. Wilson (1999) · American Fern Journal
Frond and mesophyll traits related to photosynthetic capacity and water‐use efficiency in ferns with different life‐forms ex situ
Л. А. Иванова, A. S. Tretyakova, Evgeniy Savitsky, P. K. Yudina (2024) · Annals of Applied Biology
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 54 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.