Alsophila spinulosa, also known as the flying spider-monkey tree fern, is a species of tree fern in the family Cyatheaceae.
The trunk of this species can grow to a height of 5 m or more. The stipes are persistent, spiny and purplish towards the base, and covered in brown shiny scales. Fronds are 1–3 m long and three-limbed. The sori, producing the spores, are large and round. Like many tree ferns, it features a "skirt" of dead leaves that do not drop off the crown and form a barrier for parasitic climbing plants.[1]
A. spinulosa occurs in humus soils in shadowed forest locations, and is widely distributed across Asia including China, Nepal, India, Burma, Myanmar, and Japan.[1]
The stems are rich in starch and edible. Stem chips also see use as fern chips as a substrate for the cultivation of orchids.[1]
In May 2022, the genome of A. spinulosa, was sequenced by Huang et al. and showed whole-genome duplication had occurred approximately 100 million years ago; since then, evidence of the sequencing suggests, the genome has remained stable.[2] [3] It was only the third time a fern's entire genome had been entirely mapped, and the first instance of a fern with a genome of this size being sequenced.