Ever since we visited the restaurant James in Brooklyn, I’ve been dying to get my hands on a staghorn fern to mount on a wall in our house.  We found one this weekend at Mahoney’s in Allston and it is perfect.  It’s much more humane than having a real set of antlers on the wall, but creates the same dramatic effect.  We love it.

In the wild, staghorn ferns grow in tropical rainforests on the bark of trees.  They have both sterile fronds and fertile fronds.  They cling onto the bark of the tree with sterile fronds that form a shield that protects the rhizome (roots) of the fern.  The fertile fronds are the fronds that resemble antlers.  Water collects behind the base of sterile fronds in the rainforest, providing moisture and nutrients for the fern.  In our house, we’ll have to mist the fern and give it baths twice a week to keep it wet.