Ostrich fern

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Sterile fronds in summer
Plant Info
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Scientific classification
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[[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]]
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Binomial name
Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro
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The Ostrich fern or Shuttlecock fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) is a crown-forming, colony-forming fern, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.

Spore-bearing fertile fronds in early spring

It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.

The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100-170 cm tall and 20-35 cm broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name. The fertile fronds are shorter, 40-60 cm long, brown when ripe, with highly modified and constricted leaf tissue curled over the sporangia; they develop in autumn, persist erect over the winter and release the spores in early spring.

Matteuccia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Sthenopis auratus.

Cultivation and uses

The ostrich fern is a popular ornamental plant in gardens. The tightly wound immature fronds, called fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked vegetable, and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America.

The plants are also grown in Japan, where the sprouts ("kogomi" in Japanese) are a delicacy.

References

• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Matteuccia struthiopteris
• Hyde, H. A., Wade, A. E., & Harrison, S. G. (1978). Welsh Ferns. National Museum of Wales.