Speaker 1: Okay there. I'm Mungish particular, co host of Part Time Genius,
Speaker 1: one of the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is
Speaker 1: Humans Growing Stuff, a collaboration from my Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: your friends at Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make
Speaker 1: this the most human show about plants that you'll ever
Speaker 1: listen to, and along the way, we'll share inspiring stories,
Speaker 1: tips and tricks to nurture your plant addiction, and just
Speaker 1: enough science to make you sound like an expert. Now
Speaker 1: we are on summer break right now, but because Molly
Speaker 1: and I cannot stop talking about plants, we are bringing
Speaker 1: you some mini episodes to brighten up your feed and
Speaker 1: grow your plant curiosity. Throughout the summer, we'll be dropping
Speaker 1: incredible stories from growers, advice from experts, and we'll have
Speaker 1: some fun conversations around fascinating plant facts. For this bonus episode,
Speaker 1: we are sharing our favorite facts about incredibly community minded
Speaker 1: stag horn ferns. So I just want to begin by
Speaker 1: letting you know that I am not into taxidermy, but
Speaker 1: I do love fake taxidermy. I find paper mache rainbow
Speaker 1: zebra heads extremely charming. For a while, I was obsessed
Speaker 1: with Dr Seuss fake taxidermy where he sculpted then mounted
Speaker 1: on these wooden boards, all these imaginary animals, like the
Speaker 1: delightful sea going dilemma fish or the google eyed Tasmanian
Speaker 1: wall gast. You should look them up because they are
Speaker 1: super delightful. I even had a short lived soft spot
Speaker 1: for the Billy bass singing fish, and it turns out
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth was so
Speaker 1: tickled by this novelty singing fish that she bought six
Speaker 1: of them and mounted one above her grand piano. That
Speaker 1: is true. But the reason I'm telling you all of
Speaker 1: this is because when I learned about the stag horn fern,
Speaker 1: I took an immediate liking to it. It is a
Speaker 1: plant with big, antler like fronds, and that makes it
Speaker 1: look great mounted on your wall like a trophy. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's become a pretty popular house plant recently. And just
Speaker 1: like the resurrection fern, the stag horn is an epiphyte,
Speaker 1: so it grows on trees, but it's not a parasite. Instead,
Speaker 1: it absorbs any water that drops off of the tree,
Speaker 1: while its roots secured on the branches as it climbs. Now,
Speaker 1: our friend Michael Perry, a k mr Plant geek, calls
Speaker 1: the stag horn fern one of the funkiest of the ferns,
Speaker 1: and scientists are still learning a ton about them. But
Speaker 1: here's some of my favorite facts about this regal and
Speaker 1: also very social stag horn fern. One, it has some
Speaker 1: pretty glorious fronds. Now, ferns have some of the best
Speaker 1: names in the business, partially because they look like what
Speaker 1: they're named after. Their Bird's Nest fern looks like a
Speaker 1: bird's nest, the ostrich fern fans out like ostrich feathers.
Speaker 1: The interrupting fern has missing sections and some of its fronds.
Speaker 1: The kangaroo paw fern has you guessed it leaves that
Speaker 1: look like kangaroo pause. And the stag horn fern gets
Speaker 1: its name from its long, glorious, antler like fronds. And
Speaker 1: The Sydney Morning Herald has called these ornamental fronts the
Speaker 1: drop earrings and handlebar mustache of the plant world, meaning
Speaker 1: they definitely draw attention. And even back in the nine seventies,
Speaker 1: The New York Times was raving about the plant in
Speaker 1: a column from F. Gordon Foster, author of the popular
Speaker 1: Ferns to Know and Grow Foster praised the unusually beautiful
Speaker 1: fern for its moose like antlers, and he advocated mounting
Speaker 1: one on a plaque and hanging it high in your
Speaker 1: bathroom where it could absorb moisture too. Do not remove
Speaker 1: the brown part. In addition to those antler like fronds,
Speaker 1: the fern also has shorter eyed, flat leaves near the
Speaker 1: base of the plant, and these are known as shield fronds.
Speaker 1: These are super important because they absorbed the nutrients and
Speaker 1: water for the plant. And while these shield fronds start
Speaker 1: out all green and healthy looking, they eventually turned brown
Speaker 1: and dry out. But do not be fooled. While the
Speaker 1: shield fronds might look unnecessary, they're still alive and working hard.
Speaker 1: They're important for anchoring the plant in place and for
Speaker 1: protecting that root ball a k a. The nutrient center
Speaker 1: of your plant. Three They've been around since the dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: According to the San Diego Zoo, part of the reason
Speaker 1: that stag horns look so different from other ferns with
Speaker 1: bigger boulder fronds that are less lacy is that they
Speaker 1: have a lineage dating back to the days of the dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: While the plants are native to tropical regions of Africa,
Speaker 1: southeast Asia and Australia. Many botanists believe that the stag
Speaker 1: horns are actually the missing link between ancient and modern ferns.
Speaker 1: Four spores, not seeds. Unlike other plants, stag horn ferns
Speaker 1: don't reproduce via flowers of seeds. They have these teeny
Speaker 1: tiny spores that grow on the underside of those beautiful
Speaker 1: antler like fronds. To grow more stag horns, look for
Speaker 1: the green bumps hidden on the underside of those antler
Speaker 1: like fronds. When they turn brown, you can scrape them
Speaker 1: off with a knife and harvest them. Another trick for
Speaker 1: collecting the spores is to cut off a frond and
Speaker 1: place it in a paper bag and wait for the
Speaker 1: spores to dry out and fall off the fronds. Then
Speaker 1: you can use those to grow baby ferns, or as
Speaker 1: they're actually called by botanists, pops. Five stag horns love community. Now.
Speaker 1: One of the most incredible things about stag horns is
Speaker 1: that researchers have discovered that the plants take on distinct
Speaker 1: rolls to help each other out, and this usually happens
Speaker 1: when they're growing in clusters and nature so sently, The
Speaker 1: New York Times published an article sharing how ferns near
Speaker 1: the top of the trees have grown these longer, waxier,
Speaker 1: antler fronds, and those near the bottom take on a
Speaker 1: sponge eer quality with more prominent shield fronds, and the
Speaker 1: plants leaves at the top make it easier to direct
Speaker 1: water to the other plants below them, and those near
Speaker 1: the bottom have adapted to absorb more water, so they're
Speaker 1: all coordinating, and researchers determined it was as if the
Speaker 1: ferns operate like bees in a hive, giving different roles
Speaker 1: to each other to best serve the larger community of
Speaker 1: plants so that they can grow and thrive together. I
Speaker 1: love that. And finally, six, they eat bananas. According to
Speaker 1: the Sydney Morning Herald, one well known secret in the
Speaker 1: world of growing prize stag horns is to feed your
Speaker 1: fern bananas. As one cultivator told the paper, he used
Speaker 1: to watch his grandmother peeled the fruit like she was
Speaker 1: feeding her pet chimpanzee. Now in the wild, staghorn fern
Speaker 1: trapped falling vegetal and plant matter in their nest like fraunds,
Speaker 1: and it decomposes and acts like a fertilizer there. But
Speaker 1: according to the article. The preferred method of most growers
Speaker 1: is to shed the fruit and just tuck a banana
Speaker 1: skin into the basil frounds, where you can fertilize the plant.
Speaker 1: Either way, the idea of a plant feasting on another
Speaker 1: plant skives some people out. As one subject told the
Speaker 1: Morning Herald reporter, even as a child, I wondered about
Speaker 1: the moral implications of a plant eating another plant, As
Speaker 1: he elaborated, can plants be cannibals? I mean to me,
Speaker 1: that only makes me love the staghorn fernt even more.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's bonus episode, and don't forget, no
Speaker 1: matter what season it is or where you're at in
Speaker 1: your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources waiting for you
Speaker 1: on the Miracle Grow website. Humans Growing Stuff is a
Speaker 1: collaboration from I Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow.
Speaker 1: I do hope you've loved these bonus episodes. Are show
Speaker 1: was written and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongay. Particular,
Speaker 1: the episode was edited and engineered by our pal Matt Stillo,
Speaker 1: who saved us a ton this summer. Thank you all
Speaker 1: so much for listening.