platycerium!

[shawnintland]

The Platycerium Hobbyists Handbook, by Roy Vail, is fantastic! I was given a copy by a grower/seller here in Thailand with a large order and must say it is THE best book I've ever seen on Platyceriums. It is produced by photocopying by the author so the photos do not do justice to the plants he is showing, but the information is outstanding and based upon a lifetime of experience studying them. Roy also sells DVD's and CD's (5 seperate ones, I think) and I bought them a few months back. All the photos from the book are on the CD and more. The DVD's are of various trips through Australia and the Andes and many visits to both growers' homes and naturally growing platycerium sites.
There's an earlier post under "platys" in which I posted a couple photographs of diagrams useful in ID'ing platys based upon their spore patches.
Start growing them from spores! It is really fun and great for the species themselves as you don't remove them from nature. Most people are more than willing to give you spores off of their plants as it only takes a tiny bit to make hundreds or thousands!

Here's some really fast growing P. elephantotis prothallium/gametophytes at about 3 months;


And these are P. ridleyi at about 5 months with the first 'true' leaves just forming;


Good luck growing!