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Ptisana salicina, commonly known as para, tawhiti-para, king fern, or horseshoe fern, is a species of fern native to Norfolk Island, New Zealand and the South Pacific. It has fronds up to 5 metres (16 ft) long that arise from a starchy base that was a traditional food for the Maori.
Propagation is difficult. It can be grown from spores, but this is extremely slow. It is sometimes offered for sale in nurseries that specialise in native plants.
Ptisana salicina is indigenous to Norfolk Island (the type locality), New Zealand, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Austral Islands, Society Islands and the Marquesas. It is closely related to Ptisana smithii of Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ptisana salicina by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
