Platycerium bifurcatum

Cavanilles described Acrostichum bifurcatum in 1799 from Port Jackson material collected by Luis Née; Christensen published the accepted Platycerium combination in 1906.

The best-supported native range under the narrow modern species concept is eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island, and New Caledonia.

Current Kew treatment accepts P. hillii, P. veitchii, and P. willinckii separately from P. bifurcatum, despite older broad treatments.

P. bifurcatum produces plantlets from buds and can form colonies that encircle a host-tree trunk.

Shield fronds are approximately 10–30 cm across, rounded and shallowly lobed above, and become brown and papery while remaining as a protective nest.

Foliage fronds are approximately 25–100 cm long, fork two to five times, and bear spore-producing areas over most or all of the underside of their terminal divisions.

Upper and lower colony members develop different strap-frond forms, with upper ramets more specialized for water capture and reproduction and lower ramets bearing flatter, more pendulous photosynthetic fronds.

Both clonal recruitment from root buds and sexual recruitment from spores can add members to a colony, so a colony is not necessarily one genetic individual.

Diel physiological and multi-omics research documents weak CAM-related metabolism in P. bifurcatum.

P. bifurcatum can be propagated sexually from spores and clonally through root-bud pups and documented tissue-culture methods.

P. bifurcatum can establish from cultivation in warm regions; an Auckland survey documented 104 naturally established juveniles.

A nursery label or appearance-based identification alone is insufficient to distinguish P. bifurcatum from related species, hybrids, or named selections.

Platycerium bifurcatum (Cav.) C.Chr. is an accepted naturally occurring species in Polypodiaceae.

Platycerium bifurcatum is widely used as parent stock when raising spores to select horticultural forms.