Platycerium willinckii

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 the spot gets too little daylight.

Keep it at 10°C (50°F) or warmer through winter.

Avoid touching or rubbing the pale fronds—the fine white hairs come off easily. Leaving them undisturbed helps keep the fronds looking their best.

A colony-forming epiphyte of primary and secondary monsoon forest. It grows on trees from the lowlands to approximately 2,000 m (6,560 ft) elevation. Additional growing points allow an established plant to spread into a clump in which overlapping shields protect the roots and collect water and organic material.

Shield fronds can reach approximately 70 cm (28 in) long and 50 cm (20 in) wide. Their tall upper portions are elliptical and may divide as many as four times into long, narrow lobes of unequal length. Mature shields age to brown while remaining around the colony.

Fertile fronds are usually asymmetrical and hang downward, reaching approximately 25–90 cm (10–35 in) long. They may divide as many as five times into narrow, triangular terminal segments and are densely covered with pale star-shaped hairs. Long, narrow spore-producing patches develop toward the ends of mature fertile fronds.

Recognize P. willinckii by its colony-forming habit, tall deeply divided shields, and narrow, repeatedly forked fronds that hang downward. P. bifurcatum has rounder shields; P. hillii has broader ascending fronds; P. veitchii is more upright and silver-haired. Compare mature plants, as these closely related species can look similar when young.

1875

Thomas Moore published Platycerium willinckii in 1875 from a plant grown by the Veitch nursery in England from material collected in Java. The name honors Jan Abraham Willink, a Dutch plant collector and horticultural enthusiast who cultivated an important collection of exotic plants, including ferns and orchids.