Greek kibotos - a small box; referring to the appearance of the sori.
Stems slow-growing, mostly trunk-forming, rarely prostrate, covered with long, pale, shaggy hairs. Sterile and fertile fronds similar. Fronds divided several times. Sori marginal or just inside the margin. Indusium cup-like, 2-lipped, outer lip a specialised development of the margin.
Attractive tree ferns that are occasionally available in the nursery trade.
11 species from NE India to Borneo, also Mexico and N Central America with a centre of distribution in Hawaii (6 species).
In Hawaii the fronds are eaten for their starchy pith.
Spores or occasionally offsets.
Outer indusium set apart from its segment; frond blades drooping and not narrowed at the base like the stiffer fronds of Dicksonia, also the limp, soft hairs on the trunk and stalks contrast with the stiffer bristly hairs of Dicksonia.
Joe (1964), Becker (1984).
Source: (1995). Dicksoniaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.