The shoot apex produces a rhizome without roots, possibly because P. nudum and relatives are often epiphytes.

[8] Thousands of people per day walk by these plants at the Sydney Opera House forecourt.

[11][12] Called matsubaran ("pine-needle orchid") in Japanese, it was one of the noble plants in the Edo period (1603–1867).

Known locally as Moa because of its chicken feet like stems, the Hawaiians collected large quantities of the spores and used them like talcum powder,[13] under the loincloth to prevent chafing.

Its common name, whisk fern, alludes to its use in the past as a small broom, made by tying a handful of its branches together.