Platycerium veitchii 'Lemoinei'
Lemoinei

What the name refers to

Lemoinei is one of the oldest named selections in the genus. It honours the Lemoine nursery of Nancy, France — founded in 1849 by the French breeder Victor Lemoine (1823–1911) and run by three generations of the family until it closed in 1968.

That sets it apart from the other cultivars we cover: this name has over a century of commercial record behind it, not a recent trade coinage. It appears in British and American horticultural journals and nursery wholesale lists from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Its parentage has been argued over from the start

It is generally sold as Platycerium veitchii 'Lemoinei', but which species it belongs under has never been settled:

• As documented by @mbahsimbar, it was offered in 1924 as a hybrid of P. veitchii and P. willinckii; in 1964 it was reassigned as a cultivar of P. willinckii on account of its very long, drooping fertile fronds.
• Most sources now place it back under veitchii, while acknowledging it is greener and more vigorous than a wild veitchii and may carry willinckii in its ancestry.
• No published genetic work settles it.

We follow the common trade usage and file it under veitchii, without treating that as settled.

How to recognise it

• Greener than the species. Growers call it the green veitchii; the silver coat is thinner than on a true veitchii.
• More divisions. For the same frond length, Lemoinei forks more times.

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Light changes its shape completely

This is the thing to know about Lemoinei. The same plant grows into two different silhouettes depending on light:

• Low light: the fertile fronds grow long and soft; only the youngest can hold themselves up, and the rest hang.
• Strong light: the fronds come in shorter and upright, almost indistinguishable from a true veitchii.

So ask how the plant was grown before you buy. The posture in the photograph is not necessarily the posture you will get.

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How care differs from the species

Grow it the way you grow Platycerium veitchii: high light, drought tolerant, happy in full sun, and one of the few staghorns that takes prolonged direct sun. Two differences:

• Be more generous with light. The upright silhouette needs near-full sun. Keep it shaded and it grows the drooping form.
• Less silver than the species, so slightly less sun protection. Step it up to full sun gradually in summer rather than moving it in one go.

Three questions before you buy

1. What light was it grown under? That decides the shape you inherit.
2. How was it propagated? A pup is the same individual; a sporeling segregates.
3. Has the name travelled with the plant? A name in circulation for over a century is not used identically everywhere.