Asplenium phyllitidis

Asplenium phyllitidis D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 7 1825. (syn: Neottopteris phyllitidis (D. Don) J. Sm.);
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India to S. China and N. Indo-ChinaIndia to S. China and N. Indo-China: Assam, Bangladesh, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Hainan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam, West Himalaya as per POWO;
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Epiphytes with erect rhizome, 6 x 5 cm. Scales 8-12 x 2-4 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, fimbriate. Fronds 50-60 x 6-8 cm, simple; stipe 4-5 cm, stout; lamina dark green, coriaceous, narrowly oblanceolate, acute, midrib indistinct above, raised below; veins usually forked once near the mid rib, straight, slightly ascending, uniting close to the margin. Sori 2-2.5 cm long, on alternative veinlets. Sporangial capsule 337.5 x 287.5 µm, subglobose, stalk 625 µm long. Spores 50 x 40 µm, black, planoconvex, monolete, with thickly folded laciniate perispore.
Growing in evergreen forests
Throughout tropics
(Attributions- K. P. Rajesh from India Biodiversity Portal)
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Request ID of this garden Fern – 07/05/2015 : 22 posts by 6 authors. Attachments (4)
Bangalore – 08/04/2015. Showing spores & fungus attack.

I think it is stag horn fern-Platycerium bifurcatum.

your spores dx is correct AND fungus is really a bunched up colony/web  of what  i think is spider mites,  emerging, look to the right end of the web, one is emerging
A plant pathologist can confirm it or refute it … would know who to send it to.

I would say this is Asplenium nidus, some how deformed !!
For sure not Platycerium!!

… you are right about this being a bird’s nest fern and NOT a staghorn fern.
I have seen those bifurcated ends variants of staghorn fern  (they even have similar variants for the boston fern, i even bought one) for the last three or four years in the horticulture garden shows in the winter, brought in by the growers who come from Siliguri, Darjeeling and Assam
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but my question was about the critters in picture 4 , last pic.
do you know what they might be? looking forward to your thoughts

They are mealybugs.

Oh, I thought mealy bugs were ussually white.. and I have a question about this one in th cirle
its longish, almost translucent… what is it?

Juveniles…. 🙂

yes. after i had asked the question. did some life cycle images and found it. amazing.
they have such longish antennae when young but adults dont have them that long
right now a plumeria pudica in my balcony is being eaten alive, because i had neglected it for a week or so when i got sick..
they attack when one is down… bad critters

Any home-made or organic remedy?
They have currently attacked some of my plants too, particularly the asters, I had to trim it down substantially today.

I had mealy bugs growing profusely on the underside of my potted Ficus Triangularis leaves. All I do is to spray [strong spray] the plant everyday – specially under the leaves. My bldng gardener’s very down-to -earth advice – It works beautifully 🙂
You could try it!!

… Sorry, forgot to mention – spray with plain water.

Good good. Yes we also remove it manually as we don’t use any inorganic chemicals in our garden. I don’t know but even neem extract or may be eucalyptus oil should work!!

My staffs say they do it manually. It’s the best way. They also use Biokill.

I use dishwashing detergent liquid 1/4 teaspoon to a liter of water and spray it and then  wash off with full speed garden hose.
it also washes away the “dew” dropped by the bugs.
I have in the past added neem oil, did not do comparison research with soap or soap and neem oil, so dont know if it did any wonders.
or if plant is in the in the house/balcony bring it under the cold shower put it in a large plastic tub to take up the mud so it does not get splashed all over the BR floor.
works and sometimes I just trim away the plant branches that are highly infested and throw in garbage, let the critters be happy in the garbage dump.

Thanks everyone for your advice, I will try with the spray first with some detergent….

its a birds’ nest fern, making spores = healthy part of its life history
and infected= deformed (mealy bugs drink up the nutritional juice, sap) and invite other infections …
hence looks a bit weird
I thought we had this solved and … gave the binomial too

It’s a rather splendid cristate cultivar of Asplenium phylltidis. It probably has a cv. name in Japan or somewhere, but I wonder what its first country of origin was. Knowing that (or checking if the spores bear long spines) would decide between the two subspecies (or species) subsp. phyllitidis or subsp. malesicum.
Many species of many genera are prized for their cristate, tasselled or plumose cultivars, which are due to genetic mutations in simple gene ratios.

 

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