A Tropical Indoor Plant That Will Thrive In Your Bright Kitchen

If your home is bathed in lovely, bright light, let that be a welcome excuse to add an indoor plant to your space. There are so many choices, and those looking for something unusual should consider a staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) to be one of the best plants to have in the kitchen. These tropical houseplants thrive in the conditions that are most often found in the heart of our homes, and their foliage can add a quirky source of greenery to our everyday lives.

You only need to see these tropical houseplants once to remember them, thanks to their forked fronds that look like antlers. These epiphytic ferns also produce shield-like basal fronds that cover their roots, which grow attached to trees. Don't mistake them for parasites, though; they're just taking advantage of some of the vertical growing space available in the rainforest. Keep it alive long enough in your kitchen, and this stunning plant can reach up to 3 feet wide.

Staghorn ferns thrive when exposed to indirect, bright light. As tropical rainforest dwellers, they are also adapted to high humidity. Since kitchens tend to have moist air due to being cooked in, if you have the right light levels, this part of your home can be an ideal place to grow and care for a staghorn fern. Another reason to use the place where you prepare your meals to grow one of these indoor plants is that it thrives in warm temperatures, and most kitchens are toasty because of the heat generated by ovens and stoves.

In addition to bright and indirect light, high humidity, and warm temperatures, these ferns have one more need to consider — and it may influence where you put it on display in your kitchen. Since these houseplants are epiphytes, you'll want to grow them in a loose, well-draining growing medium, such as an orchid mixture. Alternatively, you can mount a staghorn fern onto wood to create a piece of living art, mimicking how it would grow attached to a tree in nature. Yet another option is to pot it in a coir-lined wire or wooden orchid basket.