Platycerium alcicorne
plat-ee-SIR-ee-um al-sih-KOR-nee
Also recorded as: Platycerium alcicorne (P.Willemet) Desv. · Acrostichum alcicorne P.Willemet All names
Mature cultivated Platycerium alcicorne at Parc floral de Paris, showing overlapping shields and long, repeatedly divided silver-gray fertile fronds.
Mature · May 17, 2012 · © Liné1 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original source ↗︎Recognize P. alcicorne by its colony-forming habit, rounded shield nest, and repeatedly forked antler fronds with spore patches that stop short of the tips. P. elephantotis has broad, mostly undivided fertile fronds; P. madagascariense has waffle-pattern shields. Appearance… Read full description
- Species
- Platycerium alcicorne (P.Willemet) Desv.
- Reported origin
- Comoros · Kenya +8 more Details
Care
Growing this plant
Care difficulty: BeginnerGenerally easy to grow and readily forms a clump with several crowns. Check regularly for scale insects, which can trouble this species.
Give it bright, filtered daylight, such as near a bright window with strong sun softened by a sheer curtain. A grow light can help if daylight is limited.
Description
How this plant is recognized
A tree-growing fern that produces pups and can form a wide colony around a trunk. It inhabits seasonally dry woodland and wetter forests near rivers. Overlapping shields form a nest over the roots, while the antler fronds arch or hang outward.
Rounded, overlapping shields form a bowl-like nest roughly 32 cm (13 in) across. New shields are green and slightly fuzzy; older shields become brown and papery. Upper edges are smooth or shallowly divided. Some plants labeled Madagascar form have prominent veins, but strongly ridged, waffle-pattern shields are characteristic of P. madagascariense.
Antler-shaped fertile fronds reach about 60 cm (24 in) and fork two to four times into long segments with rounded or slightly pointed ends. Brown spore patches develop beneath the segments, often spanning their width but stopping short of the tips.
Recognize P. alcicorne by its colony-forming habit, rounded shield nest, and repeatedly forked antler fronds with spore patches that stop short of the tips. P. elephantotis has broad, mostly undivided fertile fronds; P. madagascariense has waffle-pattern shields. Appearance alone does not establish an African or Madagascan origin.
Classification
Where this plant belongs
Platycerium
Platycerium alcicorne (P.Willemet) Desv.
Names and usage
Original name · Latin
Original name · Latin
Alias · Latin
Translated name · Traditional Chinese
Translated name · zh-Hans
Translated name · English
Romanized name · Japanese
Alternate spelling · Japanese
Origin & history
What is known so far
Where this plant came from and how its identity developed.
Reported originComoros; Kenya; Madagascar; Mauritius; Mozambique; Réunion; Seychelles; Tanzania; Zambia; Zimbabwe · Eastern and southern tropical Africa; western Indian Ocean islands
Platycerium alcicorne is native to eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, and western Indian Ocean islands. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a botanical research institution in the United Kingdom, accepts it in its Plants of the World Online database. Plants sold as the “Africa form” or “Madagascar form” belong to this species, as does the older scientific name P. vassei. Regional labels require documented origin.
1796
Alcicorne means “elk-horned,” referring to the branching fertile fronds. First described as Acrostichum alcicorne in 1796, it was transferred to Platycerium by French botanist Nicaise Auguste Desvaux in 1827. The name was based on an illustration from Anjouan, formerly Johanna Island, in the Comoros. P. alcicorne is the reference species that anchors the genus name Platycerium.
Propagation
What has been observed
Documented propagation
- Produces fertile spores
- Produces pups / vegetative offspring
- Tissue culture documented
Evidence
Documented claims
Historical and factual accounts shown with their review status and supporting sources.
Taxonomy
Platycerium alcicorne is an accepted species
Platycerium alcicorne (P.Willemet) Desv. is an accepted naturally occurring species in Polypodiaceae and one of the 18 species of Platycerium.
Nomenclature
Publication, type, and genus-type history
P. Willemet published Acrostichum alcicorne in 1796 and Desvaux placed the species in Platycerium in 1827; the type is tied to a historical illustration based on Comoros material, and P. alcicorne is the nomenclatural type species of Platycerium.
Name origin
Meaning of alcicorne
The epithet alcicorne means elk-horned and refers to the antler-like divided fertile fronds.
Native range
Accepted native range
The native range includes Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; India is introduced.
Growth form
Colonial epiphytic growth
P. alcicorne is a clustered, colony-forming epiphyte capable of developing multiple growing points around a tree or mount.
Description
Rounded overlapping shield nest
Sterile fronds are rounded to kidney-shaped, convex, basally notched, and overlapping, forming an almost hemispherical root nest that can reach roughly 32 cm across.
Description
Forking fertile fronds and soral placement
Fertile fronds reach about 60 cm, fork two to four times, and bear several underside soral patches on ultimate and penultimate segments that stop short of the segment apex.
Propagation
Spore propagation
P. alcicorne produces fertile spores and is propagated sexually through spore culture.
Identity warning
Africa and Madagascar/vassei forms are not separate accepted species
Mainland Africa and Madagascar/vassei are established horticultural form labels within P. alcicorne; P. vassei is currently treated as a synonym, and appearance alone does not prove geographic provenance.
Propagation
Vegetative pups and divisions
The colonial growth habit produces offsets that can be separated as vegetative divisions when each has a viable growing point and roots.
Propagation
Tissue-culture regeneration
In-vitro regeneration of P. alcicorne from sporophyte root explants is scientifically documented.
Identity warning
Distinction from Platycerium elephantotis
P. alcicorne has repeatedly divided fertile fronds, whereas P. elephantotis has broad, largely undivided fertile fronds.
Conservation
Global conservation assessment
No current global IUCN Red List assessment was located for P. alcicorne during this review.
Description
Amber glossy old shield fronds
The Care Book describes old shield fronds of Platycerium alcicorne turning amber and retaining a glossy appearance.
Source register
Kew Science — Plants of the World Online
Platycerium alcicorne (P.Willemet) Desv. ↗︎Date not establishedZ. Chen et al.
“Out of Africa” origin of the pantropical staghorn fern genus Platycerium supported by plastid phylogenomics and biogeographical analysis ↗︎Date not establishedJ.P. Roux
Synopsis of the Lycopodiophyta and Pteridophyta of Africa, Madagascar and neighbouring islands ↗︎Date not establishedMark Hyde; Bart Wursten; Petra Ballings; Meg Coates Palgrave
Platycerium alcicorne ↗︎Date not establishedRiccardo Ciarle; Katrijn de Bock; Kevin C. Burns
Evolutionary origins and life-history correlates of coloniality in the epiphytic fern genus Platycerium ↗︎2025杉山拓巳
全年度 鹿角蕨栽培基礎書Date not establishedStaghornfern Editors
Platycerium alcicorne care: Africa vs Madagascar forms ↗︎2026Wenhua Hsu
In vitro plant regeneration from sporophytic root explants of Platycerium hillii and Platycerium alcicorne ↗︎Date not established
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