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.