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keylyn

id. fern (nephrolepsis?)

keylyn
11 years ago

i recently purchased this beautiful fern which looks like plastered in apparel of green butterflies.
at close inspection, its leaves are showing apparent lines side by side with its midrib and the edges surrounded by dots.



(unfortunately, i can't provide a better picture than these.)

Comments (7)

  • tropicbreezent
    11 years ago

    That fern looks very nice, but unfortunately I don't know its ID. Looks like you have a Platycerium superbum (bottom left of second photo). Above it is another Platycerium, but I don't know which one that is. With those Aspleniums up top I'd say you'd have a great fern collection. I just noticed you're in Australia, no wonder the P. superbum, but I'd like to know what the other Platycerium is. I have P. superbum (small), P. veitchii (even smaller) and P. bifurcatum. I like them but they don't overly like the climate here.

  • keylyn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    actually, it's a platycerium coronarium, not p. superbum. above it is a p. elephantotis, which is distinct with its deeply veined fronds, and elephant-esque fertile fronds.
    all in all, i have 4 p. grande, 2 p. coronarium, a p. elephantotis, a p. hilii hybrid, a humble p. willinckii, and a bunch of p. hilii.
    if you haven't gotten to ths site, it's extremely helpful if you ignore the grammatical and pragmatic error.
    http://www.siamexotica.com/grande.html
    and this one, too!
    http://www.forest-treasures.com/exoticplants/ferns/asplenium/

  • ericthehurdler
    11 years ago

    The closest guess i have is some sort of Asplenium?
    whatever it is its a cool looking plant.

    goodluck!

  • tropicbreezent
    11 years ago

    Funnily enough I was going to suggest P. elephantotis for the other but didn't feel confident. In fact I shouldn't have been confident on the superbum. Coronarium has very distinctive fertile fronds when mature, would like to try it as I believe it would cope better with heat than superbum. Did you get spore or plants via that first site?

    On your first photo there's 2 fronds coming out of the pot. Are they 2 different plants, or the same?

  • keylyn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    i can tell that a good sized p. coronarium has a pliable sheet of tissue covering its growing point where new growth emerges. i consider this unique among the ones i have.
    the growing culture of this staghorn is the same as p. ridleyi - high in the trees in full sun with fairly high humidity, moving air, and temperature.
    (the average temperature here is 80 degrees f. and the coldest it can get is no less than 70 degrees f. my average day is very breezy to the point that some of my plants can get their tender leaves damaged if not protected. typhoons also frequent as visitors. i can add that most platycerium are wind tolerant if not because their newly emerged leaves are very rigid and strong until they stretch out and gain more volume and become bendable that they dance with the wind. most are also forked and deeply lobed so that they won't caught as much as wind as possible.)

    (all of my platycerium are bought locally, though some sellers import theirs from thailand. i don't know exactly where. i never bothered in growing from spores as fully grown specimens are sold readily and affordably, but i would roll over the dice if i ever found one of my plants with a spore patch.)

    the fern located in the upper-left of my first picture is a common plant known as asplenium nidus - they're everywhere and mass produced from the local nurseries. their frond length gets over 2 meters and the width of the fern more or less 2 meters in the right condition. the second one just right next to the aforementioned fern is an asplenium nidus 'osaka'.

    This post was edited by keylyn on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 3:20

  • tropicbreezent
    11 years ago

    The fern I was asking about was the one in the pot you wanted identified. There's two different fronds in it, looks like you have two different plants there.

    The only Platyceriums sold where I am are bifurcatum and superbum, both of which don't like it too hot. That's why I'm on the look out for where I might get some of the others.

    Your profile shows you are in Australia, but from what you've said it sounds more like you are in the Philippines. Where abouts are you?

  • keylyn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    sorry about that sweeping induction...
    it's probably the way it was captured in the picture and the angular direction of the fronds. both fronds are identical and are parts of a single plant, and if you look closely, another frond from the same pot is emerging.

    we're in the same boat looking for some plants that are hard to come by. but looking at your username, i assume you'd consider me the luckier one here because i can virtually get all the known species of platycerium.
    the common staghorn fern here are p. coronarium and p. grande, both being common in the philippines. (yes, i'm from the philippines.)

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