[284] Pteridium aquilinum, Bracken

[284] Pteridium aquilinum, Bracken

Introduction

Pteridium aquilinum, Bracken is such a common type of fern that it is often called just fern.

It is also known as Brake, Common Bracken, or Eagle Fern.

Pteridium aquilinum was originally the only species in the genus Pteridium but is now split into about a dozen species, all called bracken.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Polypodiopsida (Ferns, Horsetails and some others)

Subclass – Polypodiidae (Ferns)

Order – Polypodiales

Suborder – Dennstaedtiinae

Family – Dennstaedtiaceae

Genus – Pteridium

Scientific Name – Pteridium aquilinum

Its original name was Pteris aquilina.

Name

Bracken is an old Norse word for fern. Fern is from old Germanic roots, meaning feather, leaf or fern.

Pteridium is from Ancient Greek pteris, fern, cognate with pteron, feather. Aquilinum means eagle-like, which could be because of its fronds looking like eagle’s wings, but may be from the cross-section of the root!

I also feel that August Wilhelm Dennstedt (or Dennstaedt), 1776-1826, the German Botanist deserves a mention. He had a species named after him that became the type species for a family and a suborder.

Description

If we leave out some extinct species and small groups, then vascular plants are either Angiosperms (Flowering plants and trees), Gymnosperms (coniferous trees) or Ferns.

We have already met [044] Hart’s Tongue Fern and [045] Maidenhair Spleenwort. [128-9] Horsetails sit on the edge and are either just included as ferns or just outside.

Bracken is a much more typical fern. Its large triangular fronds have the feather-shaped pattern that can best be described as fern-like! As all ferns, it reproduces by spores and its very light spores have supposedly helped it to spread across the World. Its creeping roots can spread to dense thickets.

Here are the leaves showing more clearly.

Bracken is deciduous and it remains attractive when its leaves have turned brown in the autumn.

The new fronds develop by unfurling from fiddleheads, named from their resemblance to the end of a violin.

We have looked at the life-cycle of ferns in earlier posts. Bracken has similar spore heads hidden at the back of the fronds.

Here is a young plant with its fronds rapidly uncurling.

Habitat and use

Bracken is common and widespread across Europe, Eastern Asia and North America – in temperate and subtropical areas.

In the UK is a characteristic plant of moorland habitats but is not normally found at altitudes over 600 metres or in wet environments.

The fiddleheads have been eaten in many places throughout the World, either fresh, cooked or pickled. They are traditionally eaten in East Asia, especially in Japan Korea and China. The roots can be made into flour and, in the Canary Islands, have been used for a kind of porage.

The roots and fronds have been used to produce beer in Siberia and North America.

The leaves are also used to filter sheep’s milk in cheesemaking and to store freshly made ricotta cheese.

Other Notes

You may not see much bracken in towns or in agricultural areas but in unmanaged land it is very easy to find.

See also

Pteridium aquilinum is the last of my fern species. The others are listed above.

[044] Asplenium scolopendrium, Hart’s Tongue Fern

[044] Asplenium scolopendrium, Hart’s-tongue Fern

Introduction

Asplenium scolopendrium, Hart’s-tongue, is a Fern that looks almost like a flowering plant (although it has no stem or flowers.) It is common in Europe and can form extensive areas in the right habitat. In shady places it looks dark green and luxuriant.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Polypodiopsida – Ferns (and Horsetails)

Order – Polypodiales – Ferns

Suborder – Aspleniineae

Family – Aspleniaceae (Spleenworts)

Genus – Asplenium

Scientific Name – Asplenium scolopendrium

It has the synonym Phyllitis scolopendrium.

Name

Presumably the fronds look like the tongue of a deer. ‘Hart’ is an obsolete word for a fully mature male Red Deer.

We will see the derivation of Spleenwort as a name and Asplenium tomorrow when we look at Asplenium trichomanes. Scolopendrium is derived from the Greek for centipede or millipede, from the appearance of the underside of the fronds.

Ferns

If you leave out the obscure group of Clubmosses (and some extinct species) then Ferns are the only Vascular Plants that are not Flowering Plants or Conifers. They do not produce seeds in the same way as Flowering Plants and Conifers.

I don’t want to go into the details of fern reproduction but here is a simplified view. The plants we see as ferns are completely asexual. No part of them is male or female. They produce tiny spores that fall to the ground (and may be transported elsewhere, for example by the wind.)

It’s these tiny spores that do the reproduction. They grow a little and have male and female parts. By sexual reproduction they produce new plants growing into the ferns that we know. See tomorrow’s blog for more illustrations.

Those who study ferns call themselves pteridologists. Some of the words they use are different and the leaves of ferns are generally called fronds.

Description

Asplenium scolopendrium is an unusual fern with plain undivided fronds. They are dark green, can be half a metre long and have a wrinkled look.

In the right conditions, in shaded woodland, they can grow in large groups.

Here is a large fern with a close-up showing the tiny spores on the backs of the leaves.

The leaves are a lighter green when not in a shaded environment.

Habitat and use

Asplenium scolopendrium is common and widespread in Britain and also over most of Europe. They like shady conditions and walls.

In can be grown as an ornament plant and it won’t surprise you (after reading tomorrow’s blog) that it used to be used medicinally as a spleen tonic.

Other Notes

I see it often almost at the water’s edge in inaccessible locations such as under bridges. I’m not sure if it likes the water or just the undisturbed walls.

See also

Tomorrow we will look at three more closely related Ferns [045] Maidenhair Spleenwort, Wall-Rue and Rustyback. They are all species of Asplenium but the Hart’s Tongue Fern is disputed – some put it in Asplenium, others feel it should be in a separate genus, Phyllitus.

Much later [284] Bracken is the much more familiar fern we all know.