Platycerium Species, Staghorn Fern

Per Rogier van Vugt, the Head Gardener at the greenhouses at Leiden University and at Hortus botanicus Leiden, from Noordwijk, Zuid-Holla...Read Morend, Netherlands about his photo above:
"Seeing plant in nature can give insight why a plant has a certain way of growing. Take this staghorn fern (Platycerium coronarium) for example. It lives a hostile environment for a fern. High up a tree without any moss or other water retentive matter on the bark. So the fern has to come with a solution for this or else live a miserable, and slightly dehydrated life. It's solution is making its very own pot where it collects leaf litter that decomposes to a nice airy substrate. When you grow a plant yourself and know this, you can be very creative and mount it on a wooden board or hang it in a small basket without soil. Make sure you regularly add some fertilizer to the water and add some soil to the plants own compost container to make it really happy. Keep in mind that young plants do not have this storage system yet so those need some extra TLC."

In comparing by size an weight of clump, this Crown Staghorn should be the winner of all staghorn. In habitat, we can find many of reall...Read Morey huge clump of this fern growing on high canopy in tropical rainforest of south-east Asia. Some specimen can reach a several metres and comprising with dozens of fern head.

They love high humidity, and need some shade, and yes, more room for their huge size.