How well do ya know your ferns?

[SwampDonkey]

So what ya think?

[SwampDonkey]

This species is interrupted fern of the Osmunda genus. A close cousin is the cinnamon fern O. cinnamonmea. Interupted have the spores on the same fronds as the leaves (interupting the leaves) and cinnamon fern has a separate frond bearing the spores. It grows quite tall on some sites, up to 4 feet.

[Tom]

I think they are neat but know little about them.

[SwampDonkey]

Fiddleheads anyone? The Ostrich fern

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/ostrich.htm

With reference to brachen fern in the above link, its not that similar. Brachen has 3 lobes on the frond, resembling a shield. It is very poisonous, even to animals.

Never eat a fiddlehead with hairs or with scales on the stem of the fiddlehead. Ostrich fern has bronze colored scales only on the fiddlehead. Lady fern has scales on the stem for instance, and is similar to Ostrich fern, but lighter in color. Edible ostrich fern fiddleheads are also dark green.

Nutritional info here:
http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/foods_view/1,1523,245,00.html

[Tom]

I was taught that fiddle heads were good and were accessible survival food.   I was never told of poison fern.  Lord only knows how many I've eaten in my life. :-/

[SwampDonkey]

Well your doing alright so far Tom

[Mark M]

This species is interrupted fern of the Osmunda genus....

Hey Donk - isn't he that fella they are looking for in Afghanistan?

I was just going to say Ostrich fern since that is one of the 2 I know. We don't have too many out here on the prairie but had lots up in MN. I never ate any but heard they were good.

[etat]

I never ever heard of eating a fern before.  What kinds do you eat, and do you cook em or eat em like salad and are they good.  

[Tom]

http://www.islandscene.com/food/1999/990707/fiddleheads/
http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/vegetables/fiddle.htm

[SwampDonkey]

First ya gotta pick'm, and you look for dark green fiddleheads that have not totally unferreled. They will have a bronze colored scale over the head of the young shoot (fiddle head). Then bring'm home and get out the garden hose. Take and spread the fiddle heads over a screen. What we always used was a wooden frame with mess wire nailed to it. We set it on a couple plastic chair backs and ya place the fiddleheads on top the screen'n and take the hose and your hand to rub off the scales. Kinda like clean'n peas from the combine. You can blanch them on the stove like string beans and bag'm for winter or boil them in water untill tender for eat'n now. We always ate fiddle heads with a good catch of salmon or trout, with white egg sauce on the boiled salmon fillets. mmmmmmm mmmm isn't that DanG mouth water'n?

I've seen McCain foods packaged them for sale in grocery stores, they were frozen and quite expensive, almost $5 a pound as I recall. I scoffed at the price and said to myself was lazy bugger couldn't go pick a pale in 10 minutes along the brook.

[Kedwards]

ferns are tough for me..

[SwampDonkey]

When ID'ing ferns they go by the cuts in the fronds, basal leaves of the frond, frond shape, leaflet arrangement, scales and the parts that bare the spores.

If a frond is thrice cut, like brachen fern, then the frond leaflets are subdivided and serrated. Twice cut ferns , like crested wood fern, don't have serrated leaflets. The fern above pictured is twice cut. And sword fern has leaflets the shape of tiny swords and not serrated. And sheild fern has a frond the shape of a small shield, with leaflets becoming longer in length from top to bottom, basal leaves make the frond look almost square ( turned down) like a shield. Sword fern is an interesting one, it can survive freezing, and is dark green, doesn't grow erect, rather sprawling.