About Bracken Fern, my book Wild Plants of Greater Seattle says a lot, which I here quote for you (page 372):
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens) N. Earth’s most common fern is
native to many places. Most ferns grow in compact clumps, radiating a whorl of fronds from a common center. bracken, however, uses an extensive
underground rootstock, periodically shooting up a frond.
The tender young stage of a fern frond is called a fiddlehead, shepherd’s crook, or crosier. Bracken fiddleheads generally unwind in spring. In Seattle, they can be found eight months out of the year: February into September. But the prime time is from late March through May. The fiddleheads are pliable and rubbery-feeling, especially after a scruffy reddish fuzz is rubbed off. If you squish or nibble them, a slimy juice of pronounced flavor is experienced. Many people eat and enjoy fiddleheads cooked as an asparagus substitute. In fact, bracken appears in nearly all food guides on
wild edibles. For all that, beware. Raw bracken contains an enzyme that diminishes the body’s vitamin B1 reserves. Even cooked, a carcinogenic substance is present. Though the plant is common, well-known, and widely eaten, excessive consumption (not yet established) may lead to stomach cancer. Arguments rage over what constitutes excessive consumption. Some would say eat none; others claim the good outweighs the bad.
In Seattle, fronds can be found over 9 feet high, but in the Andes they reach up to 14 feet. In starved, poor sites, only 3feet or less may be achieved. By late summer, the frond is firm, even crinkly, when it releases dusty spores—the equivalent of seeds in flowering plants. We have weedy seedlings of lady fern and sword fern in gardens, but none of bracken. Instead, it seems to rely on rampant
roots to propagate. An Old World tale claims that if a person goes out at midnight on St. John’s Eve and captures the spores of bracken (so-called “fern seed”) on a white napkin, he or she becomes invisible. If this is true, it would be very useful.
In winter, bracken turns a
cardboard color. The black, creeping rootstock is now the subject of attention. Many Indians harvested the roots to eat. This author tried the recipe and was not impressed. After boiling the roots for about an hour and inhaling a delicious aroma like that of potatoes cooking, the time for tasting was at hand. Peeling left a thin core of fiber and flavor. So then the peelings were eaten, proving chewy and starchy—survival food only.
There is a dearth of information on the bracken’s
medicinal value; the consensus is that is has little use. Ornamental use of bracken is impossible: Though pretty, there is no way to confine it. Bracken disdains being “nice and neat” and outruns any bounds we set. With such vigor, however, it soon makes clear-cuts green and pioneers in any sunny sites it can. After forest fires, bracken also covers acreage quickly. It dislikes shade but tolerates some. If you have a bracken infestation to get rid of, three years of pulling every frond
should do the job. Do not merely cut or snap the fiddleheads or fronds. Pretend each stem is a carrot, and firmly tug it out. With persistence, you can banish this coarse pest or at least keep it at bay (i.e., in your neighbor’s
yard). When you are done, you will see a big difference in the landscape, but you’ll need to continue the attack the next spring, and the spring thereafter, and the spring thereafter. Other names are: brake, adder spit, and eagle fern.
Arthur Lee Jacobson
