Once-pinnate
Angiopteris
This giant fern, an
Angiopteris from Sabah (Borneo) was actually a gift from someone in Java.
It had been given
to that collector, by another collector, who had received it
from still another collector (who is now deceased). After
speaking with
someone from the Singapore Botanical Garden who was doing field work in Sabah,
she mentioned
that she had seen this species and at a distance, it looked like a
member of the Zingiber (Ginger) family. It was not
until closer
examination that she saw the massive rhizome and knew it to be a fern.
When the above plant was
brought to Miami in 1997, its rhizome was approximately the size of a man's
fist, and the
rhizome only had two small fronds. Today the plant stands
approximately 12 feet high and has numerous fronds.
It immediately
produced 11 pups and eight were initially removed. The remaining 3 were
left on the plant to grow.
They have not been removed as of yet, and some
of them are quite large.
There have been attempts to
collect spores from this fern and cultivate them. Those efforts have been
unsuccessful.
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