Angiopteris fokiensis

    
Angiopteris fokiensis                                                                       Stipe of A. fokiensis

This species was introduced to the Miami area in 1997.   It was collected during a scientific expedition in the Ba-Vi region of North Vietnam. The original collector, John Banta, brought back three small rhizomes and gave the healthiest of the plants to Tom Moore (South Miami, Florida).  At the time, there was no way of knowing just how large the plant would become.  It was surmised that because of the fanciful nature of this fern, that it probably would not be as large as the Angiopteris evecta types.

Today, the fronds measure approximately 8 feet in length.  The stipe is dark green with large white lenticels (shown in the close-up of the stipe) whose function is to exchange gases--oxygen and carbon dioxide-- between the plant and the surrounding atmosphere.  However, the most outstanding feature of this fern is the knobby stipe.  Some have referred to it as resembling rebar.  This knobby characteristic is present even in the juvenile stages of A. fokiensis.

This fern has been propagated by stipules.  There have been no successful attempts to propagate it from spores.