Description

We were not able to include all of the ferns we surveyed here; notably, there were Intermediate and Marginal Wood ferns aplenty, and Holly Ferns up on the Bruce Peninsula. Ostrich Fern is the only fern that is edible as a spring fiddlehead vegetable. Indigenous peoples have collected and eaten these native ferns throughout their range and for as long as anyone can remember. F. W. Waugh documented use of Ostrich Fern fiddleheads as a vegetable at Six Nations of the Grand River in 1912; Katie Dybeau in Kahnawa:ke is the one who informed him about the medicinal uses of the roots of Cinnamon, Christmas, Maidenhair, and Sensitive Ferns. In other cases, the Indigenous names of the ferns give clues about their use, morphology, and forage: Bracken fern morphology gives it the appearance of lightning; Cinnamon, Bracken and Ladyfern were used as stuffing for bedding; and in Anishinaabemowin, a general word for ferns is “turkey food.”