Platycerium hillii

Platycerium hillii is an accepted naturally occurring species in Polypodiaceae and is native to northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Thomas Moore published Platycerium hillii in 1878. The name honors Walter Hill, Queensland’s first Colonial Botanist and the first superintendent of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

The native range extends along northeastern Queensland from Iron Range south to Cape Hillsborough. Kew lists New Guinea as an introduced occurrence rather than part of the native range.

The species grows on trees and occasionally rocks in lowland vine forest, most commonly in beach scrub and along creeks in wet areas.

A short creeping rhizome and proliferating roots produce additional growing points, allowing P. hillii to form large colonies.

Shield fronds are rounded to kidney-shaped, thick and corky, with an entire or slightly wavy upper margin that remains pressed against the support rather than forming an open basket.

Fertile fronds are broad, dark green, upright or ascending, and divide one to five times in their outer third. Spore-producing areas cover much of the underside of mature terminal segments.

The most useful combination is colonial growth, rounded shields with an entire or gently wavy upper edge, and broad ascending dark-green fertile fronds.

The species reproduces sexually through spores and spreads clonally through additional rooted growing points that can be separated as pups.

Broad-fertile-frond horticultural selections of Platycerium hillii have been raised through spore cultivation.