There are a few ways for forest and jungle plants to compete for
sunlight. Self-reliant tall trees grow high above their
competition.
There are a few ways for forest and jungle plants to compete for sunlight. Self-reliant tall trees grow high above their competition. Opportunistic vines let the trees do the work of getting to the top of the forest, and then climb the trees to get to the top. Passive understory plants produce large dark green leaves to utilize the sunlight that gets through the higher canopy. ‘Epiphytes’ are the most resourceful, growing where other plants cannot. Some grow in fissures high on cliffs, but most grow in trees, where leaf litter collects in branch unions.
Staghorn fern – botanical name Platycerium bifurcatum – can grow on cliffs and trees, even without fissures or branch unions. In the garden, they are quite happy on slabs of bark or coarse wood. They simply attach themselves wherever they like and start collecting their own leaf litter.
Their fine roots grip flat surfaces and are covered by flat, pale green fronds (fern leaves) that fade to papery brown. The upper margins of these flat fronds curl slightly outward to collect leaf litter that falls from tree branches or other plants above. Narrow, forked ‘staghorn’ fronds reach outward as far as two and a half feet.
Staghorn ferns grow on vertical surfaces and they need to be hosed to get watered, but only when they begin to get somewhat dry.
Large plants are easy to divide. Newly divided plants only need to be wired onto slabs with a bit of rich organic mater in between to help the roots get started. A bit of compost, sphagnum moss or even dead leaves would be just fine. Mature plants eventually create their own organic material, but might occasionally appreciate a handful of dead leaves dropped over their basal foliage so they can catch a bit more.
Tony Tomeo is a consulting horticulturist and arborist for New Image Landscape of Fremont. His weekly radio broadcast, “New Image Garden Report,” can be heard at 8:10am on Friday mornings on KSCO, 1080 AM of Santa Cruz. Tony can be reached at (888) 226-9191 or tt****@***************pe.com.
