Platycerium wandae 'Dwarf & Curling'
Dwarf & Curling

What the name refers to

Dwarf & Curling is a dwarf selection of Platycerium wandae. It is a trade name, not a registered cultivar, and we have not verified its history. Most plants on the market are tissue culture: an American seller labels it Mericlone, and a Japanese seller once listed it as tissue culture imported from Taiwan (that page has since been taken down). Since wandae makes no pups and the plants sold are mostly tissue culture, they can broadly be treated as one clone. We found no first-hand source for who selected it or which mother plant it came from; the often-repeated "from Taiwan" rests only on community accounts, so we say it is said to be from Taiwan.

The name is often written "Dwarf x Curling", but that x does not mean a hybrid; no source describes two parents. Read it as "Dwarf & Curling": dwarf plus curling fronds. Some sellers also mislabel it as willinckii.

How to recognise it

Where several sources agree:

• Far smaller than the species, with a neat habit: the whole plant stays much smaller than an ordinary wandae.
• Strongly wavy, crinkled, twisting frond edges: this is what "Curling" in the name refers to.

Each of the following comes from a single source: a tuft of woolly hair beside the growing point; deep veins; both shield and fertile fronds curl.

Care

Much as for wandae: warmth, bright diffuse light, and high humidity but always with airflow. A Japanese seller ranks avoiding stuffy, stagnant air as the single most important point, which matches the advice on the wandae page that dwarf wandae should be kept on the dry side, because too much moisture turns it black. In a hot, humid summer, step up the airflow as in getting staghorn ferns through a hot, humid summer. Temperatures work as for wandae: protect it once nights drop below 12°C, since below 10°C the shields and growing point are easily damaged, and act early when a cold snap is coming. Being small, it does not need the large board and load-bearing wall the species demands from the start. Let a new tissue-culture plant settle somewhere airy in diffuse light before deciding when to mount it, following staghorn fern sporeling care.

What it gets confused with

• Young plants of the species: wandae seedlings are small anyway, and how much they curl only becomes clear as they grow, so ask for photos of a mature plant.
• Listings that say only "wandae dwarf": some Taiwanese listings read simply wandae var. dwarf, which may not be the same plant as Dwarf & Curling.
• Wandae hybrids: for example wandae × veitchii. A hybrid names two species in its formula, which is a different thing from the x in Dwarf x Curling.

Three questions before you buy

1. How was it propagated? Wandae makes no pups and most plants sold are tissue culture, so question anything labelled a pup; sporelings are offspring and segregate, so dwarfness and curling may not appear.
2. Can you see a mature plant? A young plant does not show how dwarf or curled it will be, so ask for photos of the mother or of mature plants from the same batch.
3. Is the name written correctly? Make sure it reads wandae 'Dwarf & Curling', not willinckii, and not a different product labelled only "dwarf".