Platycerium 'Blue Moon'
Blue Moon

What this name refers to

Blue Moon is a trade name, not a registered cultivar, and its history is unverified. A Japanese growing log and most sellers in Japan and Taiwan describe it as a cross between Platycerium willinckii and the trade hybrid Diversifolium (usually given as P. bifurcatum × P. hillii), part of what hobbyists call the Moon series. Most of these sources repeat one another, though, and none leads back to an original crossing record. A few places call it a willinckii selection instead, without giving a basis.

The breeder and year are untraced. The earliest record we found is a Thai nursery whose April 2021 list already offered Blue Moon sporelings with a mother-plant photo, and whose 2024 list splits them into "original" and "selection" lines. The name may be linked to this nursery, but that is our inference. A Japanese growing log says other seedlings from the same cross were given their own names, Blue Moon being one named selection; most plants sold are its sporelings, which segregate, so plants under the name vary.

The Moon series is not one bloodline: Yellow Moon is recorded as a willinckii selection, while Blue Moon, Honey Moon and New Moon are recorded as hybrids. The names simply form a series.

How to recognise it

• Thick white hair on the fertile fronds: mentioned by most sources; the plant looks silvery white.
• A pale bluish-white cast: most sources describe it as bluish white or silvery with a blue tinge, turning blue-green with age.
• Broad, plump fronds: most sources; one says broader than Yellow Moon.
• Some sources note white veining on the shield fronds of some plants.

Two Japanese sources say the fertile fronds droop halfway and arch outward. Listing phrases such as "extra deep blue" or "extra thick" are subjective and follow no standard.

What it gets confused with

• Blue Queen: a similar name, but it is a willinckii selection and a separate line.
• Other Moon-series names such as Yellow Moon and Moonlight. Moonlight is a loose label; see the willinckii page.
• Japanese sources list Pegasus and White Hawk as sibling names from the same cross.

Care

Grow it like an ordinary willinckii: bright diffused light, an open medium that does not stay waterlogged, and good airflow. A Japanese growing log calls it vigorous, with a comfortable range of about 15 to 30°C; two Japanese sources disagree on cold tolerance, so take care below about 10°C in winter. Both the white hair and the blue cast depend on enough light; in long-term low light the fronds turn greener and the hair thins, which is the usual reason a plant looks "not blue enough". Give a new plant a steady spot to settle in and do not rush to remount or move it around.

Three questions before you buy

1. How was it propagated? Pups are the same individual as the mother plant; sporelings segregate and vary widely.
2. Can you see the mother plant or a mature plant? The blue cast and frond width do not show at the seedling stage.
3. What does the tag say? The same nursery sells both original and selection lines, so ask which one it is.