Plant of the Day: Plant of the day is: Pteris excelsa or waimakanui

Plant of the day is: Pteris excelsa or waimakanui

I've got some of these from spore just coming up with the first true fronds. Hopefully I can keep them happy enough to get a bit larger. I was looking into this fern a bit earlier today and figured I'd just keep the theme running. I was actually looking into some other Pteris species found in Japan as well but this species does have a pretty large range into China (which is where my spores were collected). Here is a nice video by botany boy with some great footage of Japan.

Pteris excelsa (Public Domain)

Trust me, it gets quite a bit larger.

Taxonomy, etc.: Pteris is the type genus for Pteridaceae, which is a fern family comprised mostly of terrestrial or lithophytic (growing in rock) ferns. The three most notable genera included in this family are Adiantum (the lovely maidenhair ferns my wife loves so much), Cheilanthes (lip ferns), and Pellaea (cliff brakes). I'm also growing members of these genera from spores currently. Pretty happy about it too :). Phylogenetics may see some changes in this family over time, as there is some debate about some of the relationships between the type genus and other genera in subfamilies. One neat (annoying) thing about this family is that the spores are formed on the leaf margins without indusium (think of a cap that protects the spores and when dried/matured it withers and releases them). Instead, the leaf margin curls around them and protects them. This sounds all well and good for nature, but what if you want to collect some of those spores? Speaking from a recent Pellaea experience, rolling out dozens of tiny margins and prying them out is a time consuming process.

2011 phylogenetic work puts the subfamiles as such:

Crptogrammoideae

Ceratopteridoideae (say THAT five times fast)

Pteridoideae

Cheilanthoideae

Vittarioideae

Fun fact: Originally published in 1828 by Blume. Illegitimately named by Gaudich. in 1829. So close Gaudich...so close. What's that? You want to see the original publication. Well, since you asked. Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the New York Botanical Garden. Good teamwork. Click here for the text.

Pteris excelsa (habit. Location: Maui, Makawao Forest Reserve

Photo Credit: Forest & Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0)

Description: Heaven forbid there be an easily found botanical description. If you want a little bit of detail on similar Pteris check the botany boy video. Otherwise, this is a tall evergreen fern (very tall actually) with two frond types or dimorphic fronds. These means that it has what are called sterile fronds (non spore producing) and fertile fronds (spore producing). You can see examples of this in other ferns like cinnamon ferns (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) and sensitive ferns (Onoclea sensibilis). Wait, it's not Osmunda now?! Ack. Pesky taxonomists :). Sterile fronds are twice pinnate (bi pinnate) with the terminal pinna that looks like a spear like pinnule (kind of visible from first picture but visible in botany boys' work). About 150 cm long and 60 cm wide 150 cm is about 5 feet ...right? They grow horizontal to the ground or up and arching. The fertile fronds are much taller and very upright up to 240 cm. That's nutters ya'll. Almost 8 feet tall! One frond. Whew. I feel over gasped. Unfortunately there aren't any great photos of such a thing that I can find :(. You simply must take a look at botany boys site just for the picture of the fiddle head or crosier covered in a heavenly pubescence. It's a fantastic shot.

Habitat/culture: These go pretty well together I think. I'll probably make this a thing. You can check out THIS MAP for a fairly well detailed distribution. A fairly common and widespread fern throughout parts of southern Japan and China that even goes so far as to make some appearances in Indonesia and Hawaii. Well collected in herbariums. My particular spores were collected in China at Mt. Emei. Let me google that for you. Trust me, you'll be impressed. Absolutely breathtaking. May I always want to wander. I have to think that the higher northern occurrences hitting Japan in zone 9 are near it's northern limit. Sadly, I don't think it'll be hardy here in St. Louis, even with a few degree increase in the coming years.

Supposedly indigenous to Hawaii but vulnerable there. Tick tock.