Just thought I'd share my Drynaria quercifolia. It's growing in an African Oil Palm and doing quite well. It's settled in on the old frond bases and is spreading upwards.
Drynaria quercifolia
AWESOME!!!! I think I'm going to get one of those. I will have to overwinter it. Any cultural advice you can give will be most appreciated.
A few things to remember. They are epiphytes or lithophytes, in that they naturally grow on trees or rocks. So drainage needs to be very good.
Some varieties have fronds all year, some drop all their leaves during the off season. Those that go dormant should be kept a bit drier when not growing, especially if their environment is cold.
They don't need much in the way of fertiliser, in nature they get everything from the leaves that fall amongst their 'nest leaves' and break down to a humus.
The rhizomes are quite hard/inflexible. If they're growing in the wrong direction they can't be bent back again (without snapping off). If broken off the piece of rhizome can produce a new plant, if it's long enough and looked after.
Drynaria quercifolia growing in leaf litter on a rocky ledge with Hoya australis ssp rupicola.
Evidently they are pretty hard to find. I did a google search. Asiatica only has the variegated form 'Pinto'. Then I saw some spores for sale on ebay. I think that would be interesting. I haven't grown ferns from spores before except by accident. This fern in the photo comes up in all my orchids :-p
Could anyone identify it? I seem to have lost the label if I ever had it.
TropicBreeze do you have any tips on growing the Drynaria from spores?
Thanks.
Never tried growing Drynaria quercifolia from spore. Have done Platycerium before (many years ago) with quite a bit of luck. They're epiphytes as well. I guess you'd have to be careful with the water. Most town water has a lot of chemical additives, particularly chlorine. That could have a very negative effect. Other than that it's a matter of keeping up the ambient humidity and warmth.
Thanks. Do you have any idea what my unidentified fern might be. I ordered the spores so we'll see if I can get them 'sprout?'
No. It's an interesting looking fern but I don't recall anything resembling that. There's been a lot of cross breeding of ferns and it might be one of those. There are probably some experts out there that would know. Good luck with the spores and let us know how it goes.
I will. I just now paid for them through paypal. They are coming from Malaysia.
Killdawabbit- Have you bought plants from overseas on ebay before? I am tempted frequently. I have bought a few items and been stiffed only once.
Johanna
Well, I haven't exactly bought any plants. I bought the spores and they came. And I received some oak seedlings from a guy in Spain for free. I do plan to buy from overseas in the future though.
I have heard on other forums that a few people do get sansevieras from Thailand and are satisfied. A few vendors have reasonable shipping rates. I get plants from all over the US on ebay and love them.
Flicker, ebay is THE place isn't it? Very nice plants and it almost feels like stealing sometimes, haha.
I do enjoy ebay! You do take a chance that what you get isn't as expected, but that has seldom happened to me. I will give the foreign vendors a try.