Ostrich fern
The Ostrich fern is a crown-forming, colony-forming
fern, occurring in temperate regions of the
Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern
Europe, northern
Asia and northern
North America.
It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral
stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.
The
fronds are dimorphic, with the
deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100-170 cm tall and 20-35 cm broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble
ostrich plumes, hence the name.
Encyclopedia
The
Ostrich fern is a crown-forming, colony-forming
fern, occurring in temperate regions of the
Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern
Europe, northern
Asia and northern
North America.
It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral
stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.
The
fronds are dimorphic, with the
deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100-170 cm tall and 20-35 cm broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble
ostrich plumes, hence the name. The fertile fronds are shorter, 40-60 cm long, brown when ripe, with highly modified and constricted leaf tissue curled over the
sporangia; they develop in autumn, persist erect over the winter and release the
spores in early spring.
Cultivation and uses
The ostrich fern is a popular ornamental plant in
gardens. The tightly wound immature fronds, called
fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked
vegetable, and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America.
The plants are also grown in
Japan, where the sprouts are a delicacy.
References
- Hyde, H. A., Wade, A. E., & Harrison, S. G. . Welsh Ferns. National Museum of Wales.
