New polypody fern unfurling.

Plant of the Day

Friday 23 December 2022

This beautiful Quercus frainetto (Hungarian oak) has become the home for mosses and ferns including Polypodium vulgare (common polypody).

Jill Raggett

Polypodium lepidotrichum sori (syn Pleopeltis lepidotricha) by Richard Ellis Via Flickr: Polypodium lepidotrichum sori. I'm a sucker for repeating patterns in nature. This epiphytic fern is native to Mexico. #Polypodiumlepidotrichum #Polypodium #lepidotrichum #Pleopeltislepidotricha #Pleopeltis #lepidotricha #fern #sori #sorus #CUgreenhouse #botany

Polypodium Musaefolium

Polypodies have some use in herbalism, but are today most important in horticulture where several species, hybrids, and their cultivars like Polypodium 'Green Wave' are commonly used as ornamental plants for shady locations.

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Polypody Fern (g. Polypodium)

Fern Polypodium aureum Sorus

A friend came to visit for a couple of days, so we did a big hike all over the South Bay (Tarlatt/Riekkola) Unit of Willapa NWR. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but I did snap this one of licorice ferns (Polypodium glycyrrhiza) on a mossy nurse log. It's named for the sweet, licorice-like flavor of the edible rhizome.

It's not something I've personally tried. I'm not a fan of the licorice flavor to begin with, but more importantly as a forager I tend to avoid harvesting anything that would require me to kill the entire plant. Leaves, flowers, berries, sure--I'm okay with that. And no, pulling up a mushroom will not kill the entire fungus.

I think it's important to be able to recognize edible plants and fungi and know how to prepare them, both for curiosity's sake and also because there's always that chance of getting lost in the woods while hiking and needing to find emergency food. But I am not one of these super hardcore western foragers where 95% of what they eat normally is foraged, fished, or hunted. I don't have the time, quite honestly, and there are ways to eat relatively sustainably that can include more conventional foods.

Moreover, a lot of the things we like to forage are food for wildlife (who can't just go to a grocery store), or carry seeds or spores that are needed to replenish the local population of a given species. I don't think foragers talk nearly enough about the impact we can have on ecosystems when we over-harvest, especially as foraging becomes more popular. I already teach my foraging students to not take more than 25% of something from a given area, which is a lot stricter than many other foragers' guidelines. For myself, I'll sometimes incorporate something I've brought home like mushrooms or berries into my cooking, especially if it's something new to me that I want to get a better sense of. But it's more as seasonal treats that I look forward to throughout the year, not as the core of my food security.

And for something like licorice fern, my personal view is "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." It's not an endangered species, but it's not necessary for me to collect something that will cause me to rip up an entire plant while also disturbing well-developed moss forests to get at the rhizome. So I'll let the ferns keep on living, and go harvest some literal low-hanging fruit once the salmonberries get their last bit of ripening in.

Polypody fern sori - trying out an old macro lens that has been gathering dust at the back of my photography drawer for years.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza or licorice fern. In the PNW any fern growing from a tree like this is most likely Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Fiddlehead Fern Romance. Polypodium lepidotrichium (synonym Pleopeltis lepidotrichia) #Polypodiumlepidotrichium #Polypodium #lepidotrichium #Pleopeltislepidotrichia #Pleopeltis #lepidotrichia #fern #fiddlehead #fiddleheadfern #fernfiddlehead #CUgreenhouse (at CU Greenhouse) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmfwQEGMuy8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Polypodium Hastaefolium

"Ferns: British and Exotic" by Edward Joseph Lowe, 1858

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