Lemmaphyllum microphyllum

Last fall I bought two small pots of Lemmaphyllum microphyllum—an epiphytic fern—at the Pat Calvert Greenhouse up in Seattle.

On that same trip I visited the Amazon Spheres (here and here) and saw this little plant (possibly a Utricularia alpina) growing in a bromeliad. The thought seed was planted...


Once I was back home I wrapped one of my lemmaphyllum's roots, and a bit of soil, in some sphagnum moss and tucked the bundle into a bromeliad.

I loved the look and the plant seemed happy.

That is until the bromeliad started to brown up. It bloomed a couple of years ago and was finally starting its downward spiral.

So I pulled the plant and moss out of the bromeliad and mounted it on a piece of bark.

The green wire almost disappears, that is until you look at the bottom.

I keep tapping on the fronds with spores, hoping they'll let loose with a few, which will fall into the moss and maybe make babies. So far no, they're staying put.

Here is the other of my two plants. It got the bark treatment right away and has settled in nicely.

I used plastic filament on this one, harder to work with but also harder to see.

They aren't visible in these pictures, but there are tiny new fronds starting to push out of the moss.

I'm taking that as a sign the plant is happy.

Back when I visited Dick's greenhouse (here) I spotted the same plant getting a similar treatment. It was good to know I wasn't crazy in thinking it would be happy living like this.

Weather Diary, April 8: Hi 60, Low 48/ Precip .18"

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