Flora of Oregon

Stems far-creeping, buried, branched, hairy, scales absent, plants often forming extensive clones, old leaf bases persistent.

Leaves deciduous, fiddleheads (croziers) densely covered by long rusty-brown hairs.

Petioles robust, glabrous or hairy, with a dark, swollen subterranean portion.

Blades leathery, 2–4 pinnate, segments entire to pinnatifid or pinnatifid proximally, narrow and entire distally.

Veins forming an intramarginal vein in fertile segments, otherwise free and pinnately-branched.

Sori linear, marginal, borne along the intramarginal vein, covered by the false indusium when young, inner indusium membranous and inconspicuous.

Spores tetrahedral, rounded distally.

Cosmopolitan. 1 species.

Bracken fiddleheads are edible. They may contain the carcinogen ptaquiloside, present in the stems, which is mostly removed by cooking. Bracken fiddleheads are eaten in many parts of its range, especially in East Asia. Native Americans cooked fiddleheads and stems for food and used the root medicinally for stomach problems. Today, bracken fiddleheads are seldom harvested, though they are still listed by the Forest Service as a forest product. Bracken is often regarded as a weed of pastures because it is very invasive and is toxic to livestock in large quantities. Bracken is unusual among pteridophytes in having nectaries on the rachis and a mutualistic relationship with ants that feed on the nectar and help protect it against herbivores.

Flora of North America

as described under Pteridium

Plants terrestrial, often forming colonies or thickets. Stems subterranean, slender, long-creeping; hairs pale to dark, jointed; scales absent; true vessels present (absent in other Dennstaedtiaceae genera in the flora). Leaves widely spaced, broadly deltate, 0.5--4.5 m. Petiole glabrous to short-hairy, without prickles, with stem buds near base, vascular bundles numerous, U- or O-shaped in cross section. Blade 2--4-pinnate, rachis and costae grooved adaxially; rachis without prickles; nectaries at base of proximal and sometimes distal pinnae. Segments pinnately divided, ultimate segments ovate to oblong to linear, base extending proximally on costae (decurrent) or proximally (surcurrent), margins entire. Veins free or joined at margin by commissural vein beneath sori, pinnately 2--3-forked. Sori ± continuous, covered by recurved, outer false indusium and obscure, extrorse, inner true indusium. Spores tetrahedral-globose, trilete, very finely granulate. x = 26.