Platycerium superbum

Platycerium superbum, commonly known as the staghorn fern, is a Platycerium species of fern. It is native to Australia.

Platycerium superbum
Staghorn fern at North Coast Regional Botanic Garden, Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Polypodiales
Suborder: Polypodiineae
Family: Polypodiaceae
Genus: Platycerium
Species:
P. superbum
Binomial name
Platycerium superbum
de Jonch. & Hennipman

Distribution

The fern is native to north-east New South Wales (north of Nabiac) and Queensland.[1] It can also be found in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.[2] In propagated form, the plant is grown successfully as far south as Victoria.[3]

During the 1990s, the fern was also discovered on the Hawaiian Islands where they are now considered a "problem species".[4]

Features

Platycerium superbum is a bracket epiphyte naturally occurring in and near rainforests but is now also widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for gardens.

In both naturally occurring and propagated forms, these ferns develop a humus-collecting "nest" of non-fertile fronds and in doing so can grow up to 1 metre wide. The ferns also develop hanging fertile fronds that can reach up to 2 metres long.[2]

Both fertile and non-fertile fronds are broad and branching and grown to resemble the horns of a stag or elk, thus the common names stag horn or elk horn.[2]

Nutrition

In the wild, the nest structure captures falling leaves and other detritus which then decomposes to provide the plant with nutrients.[3] The ferns are known to favour a slightly acidic environment and so to encourage growth in propagated plants, some growers recommend adding used tea leaves directly to the plant's "nest".[2] Others recommend doing the same with banana peel.[5]

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References
  1. Platycerium superbum de Jonch. & Hennipman by Peter G. Wilson (National Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney)
  2. Platycerium superbum (Australian Native Plants Society)
  3. Platycerium superbum by Pippa Lloyd (Australian National Botanic Gardens, 2006)
  4. Fern Ecology by Klaus Mehltreter, Lawrence R. Walker & Joanne M. Sharpe (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
  5. Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month by Pat Welsh (Chronicle Books, 2009)
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