Superbum

Tags

Banana Peels, elk horn, Elk Horn Fern, epiphyte, Fern, fertile fronds, Flora and Fauna, Frond, garden, home grown, nature, organic, ornamental plant, plants, Platycerium, Platycerium superbum, stag horn, worm castings

This is my “MOTHER” superbum ( Platycerium superbum ). She arrived in my family of plants in 1988, which makes her the ripe old age of  25. Obviously then she was only a pup, looking like the pup pictured below.As she is an epiphyte, a container like the one above was created for her years ago. It was filled with a mixture of potting soil and worm castings. She was then attached using soft string and hung underneath a tree. The leaf drop replenishes the container with humus. She loves a twice weekly spray of water. Chopped Banana  peels and mashed banana are added twice a year.

These ferns develop a humus collecting “nest” of non-fertile fronds and in doing so can grown 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.