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Sensitive Fern
Onoclea sinsibilis
Plant Data
Order:
Polypodiales
Family:
Oncleaceae (Onocleoids)
Type:
Fern
Flower:
Flowers are absent on ferns. Instead, they reproduce using spores via a process called 'sporification'.
Fruit:
Spores exist on the erect, fertile stalks and are enclosed inside bead-like coverings.
Leaves:
A deciduous fern. Large, deeply pinnate. Each leaflet of the frond is untoothed and lanceolate to oblong. The fronds are sometimes called 'fiddleheads'.
Maximum Size:
120 centimetres tall
Foraging Notes:
The fronds can be eaten raw or cooked. The roots can be eaten but must be cooked.
Never consume a wild plant unless you are 100% certain that it is safe to eat and you know that you have identified it correctly.
Other Names:
Bead Fern.
Frequency (UK):
Unusual
Habitats:
Bogs, farmland, marshes, meadows, riverbanks, swamps, waterside, wetland, woodland.