Ceratopteris pteridoides (Antler Fern/Antler Water Sprite)

Description

Antler Fern, or Ceratopteris pteridoides, is distrubuted from the American subtropicst and tropics from Florida and Louisiana on southward and has also been found in Vietnam.Form and size vary, depending on the conditions of the location it grows in. Can be grown submersed while small or as a floating plant as it becomes larger.

The floating leaves of young plants are entire, those of older, larger plants have broad lobes. Their outline is a wide triangle. On older leaves, many young plants form from bulblets in the deep crevices of the lobes.
The leaf stalks are thick and widen even more towards the leaf blade; they consist of spongiform tissue and serve as buoys. (The leaf stalks of Ceratopteris cornuta and C. thalictroides, however, are relatively thin and of an even width.) The leaf lobes of C. pteridoides are mostly oppsite, whereas those of C. cornuta and C. thalictroides are alternate.
Spore-carrying fronds have up to four pinna, and upright growth habit, and they are segemented. They form only rarely in tanks. When the plant is cultivated emersed on nutrient-rich substrate and high light intensities the probability is higher.