Platycerium willinckii 'Robin'
Robin

What the name refers to

Robin is a trade name in the dwarf group of Platycerium willinckii. It is a trade name, not a registered cultivar, and we have not verified its history. Taiwanese sellers say it was selected from willinckii Dwarf Nook sporelings. A Japanese grower guesses it is simply Spur in tissue culture under a Taiwanese name, and one Japanese auction lists it as "Robin (Spur TC)", but the grower admits it is a guess and Taiwanese sellers say nothing of the kind, so we do not treat them as the same plant.

How to recognise it

• Dwarf, small and compact: the fronds stay gathered rather than sprawling.
• Pronounced white veins: the veins on the fertile fronds stand out as white lines, especially in raking light.
• Serrated, spiny fertile-frond tips: the feature most often used to identify it.
• One grower describes the fertile fronds as thin, pointed and irregularly forked, growing long and drooping at the tips as the plant matures; one seller says a mature plant is about the size of a palm. Each of these comes from a single source.

Strong veins and serrated margins are not unique to Robin; other serrated selections show them too, so a photo alone cannot settle it.

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Care

Grow it as a dwarf willinckii: bright, diffuse light, an airy medium, water only when dry. The thing to watch is that shields come slowly and the area around the growing point tends to wobble; the Japanese grower specifically warns about the crown snapping. Put wire or another support in at mounting, and if it wobbles, re-secure it as described in a wobbly staghorn fern. A tissue-culture cup plant should settle somewhere airy in diffuse light before you think about mounting it.

What it gets confused with

It is closest to Spur: small, white-veined, spiny at the tips, with descriptions that overlap almost entirely. If a seller uses both names, ask whether it is tissue culture or a pup, and which mother plant the culture came from.

Three questions before you buy

1. How was it propagated? Most plants on the market are tissue culture, copies of one plant; sporelings are offspring and segregate; a pup is the same individual as its mother.
2. Can you see a mature plant? Serration and veining do not show at the seedling stage, so ask for photos of the mother or of mature plants from the same batch.
3. Which line does the name follow? If it is labelled both Robin and Spur, ask exactly where it comes from.