Platycerium Elephantosis Care

The fern is native to north-east New South Wales (north of Nabiac) and Queensland. It can also be found in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and New Guinea. In propagated form, the plant is grown successfully as far south as Victoria. During the 1990s, the fern was also discovered on the Hawaiian Islands where they are now considered a "problem species". 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. 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. The plant gives off many tiny spores that drift to nearby trees to reproduce.