Herself’s Houston Garden

Gardening for fun and wildlife at the edge of Houston’s piney woods

Staghorn Fern ( Platycerium bifurcatum )

with 5 comments

I’ve grown staghorn ferns off and on as houseplants. When I went on a garden club garden tour in April I saw several growing in people’s gardens outside. Once settled in they will grown outside here. Some were mounted on boards and fences, I decided to try mine in a tree nook.

Staghorns produce two types of leaves: basal, and foliar. The basal (nest) fronds are the brown ones that the fern uses to hang onto something, foliar are the green fronds. The basal collects rain water and debri to break down and feed to the plant. The foliar fronds are the fertile ones and you’ll see spores appear on the fronds occasionally.

Place some moss or dirt between the basal frond and the mount. If the moss or soil fades away replace it with more.

Water when fronds are dry. The older fronds tolerate dry weather better than the younger ones.

Grow in part to full shade.

Protect from frost and freezing.

Native to Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. There are 16 known platycerium species all growing in temperate rain forests. The staghorns produce the two leaves.

Propagation is difficult, best done by division of pups from mother plant once it has its own basal leaves.

Due to their popularity they are disappearing from the rain forests making it all the more important to establish some plants here.

Written by timestocome

June 10th, 2009 at 5:00 am

Posted in plants in Houston

Tagged with , , , ,

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5 Responses to 'Staghorn Fern ( Platycerium bifurcatum )'

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  1. They will take a few hours of freezing weather with no damage at all..

    Gary

    20 Jun 09 at 10:39 am

  2. But I’m wondering about the heat, it’s been pretty sulky lately. But I’ve been buried in programming tasks and the poor garden has been neglected. So it is tough to say whether the plants are sulking from the heat and lack of rain or because they miss me? How’s your garden holding up? Water restrictions there yet?

    There’s a Mercer Sale tomorrow. Not sure I want to plant anything in this heat, but I’m pretty sure I want to go check things out anyhow. :D Jerry’s Jungle sale is coming the 3rd and 4th too.

    ljmacphee

    26 Jun 09 at 6:15 pm

  3. Looks like it did not survive several day freeze, leaving it be until spring just in case.

    timestocome

    21 Jan 10 at 11:46 am

  4. I have a 10-year old staghorn fern, in a basket, that was recently damaged in the Fl freeze. While it has new green growth, the fronds are mostly brown from freeze damage. Should I cut back the brown fronds or leave it to shed the brown naturally? EP

    PisciGator

    21 Feb 10 at 2:37 pm

  5. I would leave them to shed on their own. There is likely more freeze damage underneath and the brown sheath will provide some protection while the plant is healing.

    timestocome

    22 Feb 10 at 8:11 am

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