Volume 3 > Part 4 > Year 1989 > Page 489–490 > Polypodiaceae > Platycerium

3. Platycerium coronarium (J.Koenig ex O.F.Müll.) Desv.

Prodr.: 213. 1827; C.Chr., Bot. Tidsskr. 32: 349. 1916; Tardieu & C.Chr. in Fl. Indo-Chine 7(2): 445. 1941; Holttum, Rev. Fl. Malaya 2: 138. f. 57. 1955; Tagawa & K.Iwats., S.E. Asian Stud. 3(3): 75. 1965; Hennipman & Roos, Verh. Kon. Ned. Akad. 80: 92. f. 20, e–h, 21. 1982.— Osmunda coronaria J.Koenig ex O.F.Müll., Naturforscher (Halle) 21: 107. f. 3. 1785. Plate II: 2.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Rhizome short-creeping, more than 1 cm diam., fleshy, covered with scales at apex; scales broad, up to 1.5 by 1 cm, brown, herbaceous. Scale-leaves about 40 cm long, dichotomously lobed, the deepest sinus more than 20 cm deep, the lobes round at apex, about 5 cm in both length and width or longer; main veins raised on both surfaces, dichotomous, smaller veins copiously anastomosing, invisible; very thick, up to 1.5 cm thick and fleshy at base. Normal leaves 100 cm or more in length, pendulous, several times dichotomously branching, lower branch unequal, bearing short sterile branches and a single simple fertile lobe, upper branching almost equal; ultimate segments narrowly subtriangular, not pointed, entire, main veins dichotomous, raised, smaller veins hardly visible, forming copious network; fertile lobes stalked, almost circular to deeply cordate, up to 15 cm broad, the whole concave lower surface covered with a dense felt of stellate hairs and sporangia.

Thailand : NORTH-EASTERN: Nong Khai (Khong Kao); SOUTH-EASTERN: Chon Buri (Si Racha), Trat (Ko Chang); PENINSULAR: Phuket (Khao Phara), Krabi, Trang (Khao Chong), Satun (Tarutao), Yala (Bannang Sata).

Distribution : Burma (Tenasserim), Vietnam, Cambodia, N & W Malesia.

Ecology : Epiphytic on trunk of larger trees in open places at low altitudes, rather common.

Vernacular : Kraprok krachat (กระปรอกกระจาด)(Southeastern); hua sida (หัวสีดา)(Southwestern); ho khao sida (ห่อข้าวสีดา)(Central, Peninsular).

CommonName : Elkhorn Fern.

Notes: Owing to the apparent peculiarity of the fertile lobes, this species is considered as distinct from the other members of this genus, but the fertile lobes of this species are not so different morphologically as explained appropriately by Holttum (1955). This species is close to Platycerium holttumii, and almost the same but for the difference in the fertile lobes and in the structure of the sporangia. As described above, Thai plants are not so large as those in Singapore or in Java, attaining sometimes more than 2 m in length in the normal leaves.

E-version notes : For more details see Ferns of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.