Staghorn Fern

Platycerium bifurcatum (Cav.) C. Chr.

plat-eh-SEAR-ee-um bye-fur-CAY tum

Ferns

Explanation of name: From Greek platys, broad, and keras, horn, in reference to this fern’s fronds. Bifurcatum means forked.

Natural range: SE Asia, Polynesia and Australia (HUX)  An epiphyte of temperate and tropical rainforests (HUX)

Recognition: Fronds dimorphous, with sterile fronds round, kidney- or heart-shaped, sessile and persistent. Can be thick, fleshy gray to green pads, or thin, papery and brown. These fronds create a “nest” that envelops the fern’s roots. Fertile fronds are green and leathery, arching or hanging and 2-3 times forked. Both sterile and fertile fronds are pubescent or glabrous. Staghorn Ferns bear their sori in large patches on the underside of the fertile fronds near the tips of their “antlers.” Individual plants can become massive and extremely heavy.

Landscape uses: Staghorns are spectacular fern oddities that lend an instant tropical effect to any location. Because they are strongly epiphytic, they don’t do well in containers; they are quite happy to be mounted to tree trunks, placed in the crotches of trees or mounted on a wall in a conservatory.  These are old pass-along plants, received mounted to slabs of pecky cypress or found swinging from chains under old trees. Once they become too large for their supports or begin to decay, they are divided once again.