Species
+

Platycerium bifurcatum (Cav.) C.Chr.

Elkhorn Fern, Elkhorn fern (EN); Geweihfarn (DE); Helecho cuerno de alce (ES), Staghorn fern, common staghorn fern

Climate known 41 photographs Other epiphyte
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Platycerium bifurcatum, commonly known as elkhorn fern, is a species of epiphytic plant in the fern family Polypodiaceae. It is native to Australia and is widespread on the entire east coast.

Text from Wikipedia, “Platycerium bifurcatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Platycerium

Platycerium is a genus of about 18 fern species in the polypod family, Polypodiaceae. Ferns in this genus are widely known as staghorn or elkhorn ferns due to their uniquely shaped fronds. This genus is epiphytic and is native to tropical and temperate areas of South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Guinea.

Text from Wikipedia, “Platycerium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Polypodiaceae
Described by
(Cav.) C.Chr.
Native to
Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Sulawesi +4
Wild records
1615 in range· 1093 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1269mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 172 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Platycerium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1269 mm a year, wettest February at 172 mm, driest September at 54 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 6.0 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Platycerium bifurcatum var. normale Domin.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Platycerium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (927 mm of 1269 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.1 °C against a yearly mean of 17.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1269 mm a year, wettest February at 172 mm, driest September at 54 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1269 mm a year at the habitat, 927 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 172 mm, driest September at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 961 mm to 1712 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 6.0 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.0 °C, the absolute minimum 3.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.1 °C to 12.4 °C), warmest day 26.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 6.0 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Platycerium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 9 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1269 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 902 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 19–41RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 902 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 24–2826 / 24–2824 / 22–2622 / 20–2419 / 17–2217 / 14–2016 / 14–1918 / 15–2121 / 18–2423 / 20–2624 / 22–2726 / 24–28
Night °C19 / 16–2219 / 16–2218 / 14–2115 / 11–1812 / 8–1610 / 6–149 / 4–129 / 5–1311 / 8–1514 / 10–1716 / 12–1918 / 15–21
Rain mm138 / 90–204172 / 126–250141 / 89–213121 / 79–175103 / 69–14788 / 51–12359 / 40–8555 / 38–7154 / 38–6986 / 67–105117 / 94–146135 / 89–186
DLI40 / 39–4235 / 34–3731 / 30–3326 / 24–2820 / 18–2319 / 16–2121 / 18–2327 / 24–2934 / 31–3638 / 37–3940 / 39–4241 / 40–43
RH %62 / 60–6663 / 61–6763 / 61–6762 / 60–6561 / 59–6459 / 57–6258 / 56–6056 / 54–5856 / 54–5958 / 56–6060 / 58–6261 / 59–64

Each figure is the median across the 902 grid cells holding the 1529 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2522:6602 (-36.125, 150.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 902 distinct grid cells holding the 1529 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2522:6602 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.00_150.000, lapse-corrected -260 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 20 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeJawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Sulawesi, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, New Caledonia· introduced: Canary Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Taiwan, New Zealand North, Hawaii, Colombia
Kew's description“epiphyte”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-28.401, 153.275 · in the densest population, 1083 records (67% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1615 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1093 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 272 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 86 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1615 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Platycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatumPlatycerium bifurcatum

Photographs: (c) David Thompson, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Platycerium bifurcatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant, Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Content of Selected Nigerian Medicinal Plants
Matthias Onyebuchi Agbo, Philip F. Uzor, Uchenna Nneamaka Akazie Nneji, Chidozie Uzoma Eze Odurukwe (2015) · Dhaka University Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Stomatal cell wall composition: distinctive structural patterns associated with different phylogenetic groups
Ilana Shtein, Yaniv Shelef, Ziv Marom, Einat Zelinger (2017) · Annals of Botany
New Insights into the Co-evolution of Cytochrome cReductase and the Mitochondrial Processing Peptidase
Stefanie Brumme, Volker Kruft, Udo K. Schmitz, Hans‐Peter Braun (1998) · Journal of Biological Chemistry
Plant regeneration from leaf explants of the fern Platycerium bifurcatum in vitro
Marjana Camloha, Nada Gog̀ala, Janko Rode (1994) · Scientia Horticulturae
Crassulacean acid metabolism in the epiphytic fern Patycerium bifurcatum
Grzegorz Rut, J. Krupa, Zbigniew Miszalski, A. Rzepka (2008) · Photosynthetica
Apospory in leaf culture of staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum)
Jana Ambrožič‐Dolinšek, Marjana Camloh, B. Bohanec, Jana Žel (2002) · Plant Cell Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 56 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.