Bracken rhizomes

[Spirit fish]

This one is controversial anyway read on...I have consumed bracket rhizome starch in the past with no I'll effects but it's controversial ,the Pacific northwest
People's of America the tlingit Indians ect cooked bracken rhizomes in big pits for hours then they p ounded the rhizomes with stones rolled the starchy gloop into balls and baked a form of bread also bracket term flour is widely consumed in Japan , her es were the controversy lies it's apparently carcinogenic but the studies were only done on animals and that's when it's unprocessed raw , ptaquiloside the toxin carcinogen varies greatly from plant to plant some it's zero some it's high it's totally random ,also cooking removes it, leaching and I seen a chef on tv soak bracken fronds in water and ash and serve it to customers, iv done lots of ethnobotanical research on this and some sides argue its 100% safe some argue it isn't ,I personally tried it for the purposes of science with no Ill effects if anyone else has experience with this interesting plant let me know thanks

 

[crosslandkelly]

Young fiddle heads from the Ostrich fern are the norm in the North of America and Canada, not sure of the UK ferns.

 

[Spirit fish]

Young fiddle heads from the Ostrich fern are the norm in the North of America and Canada, not sure of the UK ferns.

ferns are interesting plants we have quite a few UK species bracken being the most common , I carn t remember what species it was but a type of fern rhizomes was the staple food of many native maoris in new Zealand

 

[Spirit fish]

Young fiddle heads from the Ostrich fern are the norm in the North of America and Canada, not sure of the UK ferns.

I believe sword ferns have potato like rhizomes

 

[Toddy]

Well, I grow bracken in the garden....it wasn't intentional, the blasted stuff does it's liverwort type stage in the gaps between paving slabs and then the next year I've got wee ferny brackens appearing everywhere There's one coming up just now right outside the back door.
Anyhow, they're quite pretty when young, and I don't mind having native plants around, when they get too big I just pull off some of the fronds, and I fell them all before they seed, now.

The biggest ones we dig out. There's not a lot of root to them, even a five year old plant didn't have a lot to it. Certainly not something I'd have thought to try to eat.....and I dig up the lesser celandines and eat them and they're only peanut sized (they too like between the paving slabs )
Mostly the bracken roots bulk up above ground and it's from the lumpy furry bits that new fronds appear in Spring.

I don't bother eating them, not keen on the sort of hairy look to them tbh.

Interesting to hear how others find them though, and what they do with them.

If anyone wants to try growing it on, I'll happily lift some of the liverwort type stage and post.
It's an interesting sort of cycle from spore to fern.

 

[Spirit fish]

Well, I grow bracken in the garden....it wasn't intentional, the blasted stuff does it's liverwort type stage in the gaps between paving slabs and then the next year I've got wee ferny brackens appearing everywhere There's one coming up just now right outside the back door.
Anyhow, they're quite pretty when young, and I don't mind having native plants around, when they get too big I just pull off some of the fronds, and I fell them all before they seed, now.

The biggest ones we dig out. There's not a lot of root to them, even a five year old plant didn't have a lot to it. Certainly not something I'd have thought to try to eat.....and I dig up the lesser celandines and eat them and they're only peanut sized (they too like between the paving slabs )
Mostly the bracken roots bulk up above ground and it's from the lumpy furry bits that new fronds appear in Spring.

I don't bother eating them, not keen on the sort of hairy look to them tbh.

Interesting to hear how others find them though, and what they do with them.

If anyone wants to try growing it on, I'll happily lift some of the liverwort type stage and post.
It's an interesting sort of cycle from spore to fern.

The rhizomes spread up to 100 metres in woodlands and they can get substantial if in more sandy soils but in clay soils there very thin I find even Burdock roots are insubstantial if it's growing in hard clay soils

 

[Broch]

No thanks Toddy

There's not much 'root' to speak of on ours (Pteridium aquilinum) so I don't think harvesting them would be very easy; I'll have to have another look. We have several other ferns in the wood as well, a couple that are AWI species.

 

[Spirit fish]

No thanks Toddy

There's not much 'root' to speak of on ours (Pteridium aquilinum) so I don't think harvesting them would be very easy; I'll have to have another look. We have several other ferns in the wood as well, a couple that are AWI species.

View attachment 68495

Lovely woodland u have there what a privilege

 

[Toddy]

The rhizomes spread up to 100 metres in woodlands and they can get substantial if in more sandy soils but in clay soils there very thin I find even Burdock roots are insubstantial if it's growing in hard clay soils

My garden runs right along side a tree lined nature walk. Our soil is blue clay at base, but it's had forty years of organic stuff dug into the topsoil so it's not hard, just inclined to be wet. We've never had a bracken re-grow once we've dug up the crown, and they don't seem to come up anywhere that hasn't had the liverwort stage first.
Not sure how the rhizome bit works on that.
To be honest I dont think I've even seen anything much going from the root lump either. Just now I have four big ones growing in the garden, a wee tiny one at the back door, and three trying to grow in planters that are going to be weeded out come Autumn.

I know folks spoke of eating the fiddleheads but I still can't see what's edible about the root/crown mass, and I haven't spotted anything else further away from the plants....and I do forage from my garden, I grow pignuts too, so the ground gets turned over as I look for munchies.

Interesting topic .....@Broch....are your other ferns similar in their growth ?

M

 

[Spirit fish]

My garden runs right along side a tree lined nature walk. Our soil is blue clay at base, but it's had forty years of organic stuff dug into the topsoil so it's not hard, just inclined to be wet. We've never had a bracken re-grow once we've dug up the crown, and they don't seem to come up anywhere that hasn't had the liverwort stage first.
Not sure how the rhizome bit works on that.
To be honest I dont think I've even seen anything much going from the root lump either. Just now I have four growing in the garden, a wee tiny one at the back door, and three trying to grow in planters that are going to be weeded out come Autumn.

I know folks spoke of eating the fiddleheads but I still can't see what's edible about the root/crown mass, and I haven't spotted anything else further away from the plants....and I do forage from my garden, I grow pignuts too, so the ground gets turned over as I look for munchies.

Interesting topic .....@Broch....are your other ferns similar in their growth ?

M

U have dig quite deep a foot down in some cases

 

[Spirit fish]

My garden runs right along side a tree lined nature walk. Our soil is blue clay at base, but it's had forty years of organic stuff dug into the topsoil so it's not hard, just inclined to be wet. We've never had a bracken re-grow once we've dug up the crown, and they don't seem to come up anywhere that hasn't had the liverwort stage first.
Not sure how the rhizome bit works on that.
To be honest I dont think I've even seen anything much going from the root lump either. Just now I have four growing in the garden, a wee tiny one at the back door, and three trying to grow in planters that are going to be weeded out come Autumn.

I know folks spoke of eating the fiddleheads but I still can't see what's edible about the root/crown mass, and I haven't spotted anything else further away from the plants....and I do forage from my garden, I grow pignuts too, so the ground gets turned over as I look for munchies.

Interesting topic .....@Broch....are your other ferns similar in their growth ?

M

u have to heat the rhizomes for hours in a p it of embers cover with hot ash from the top to this softens the rhizomes then u mash the black rhizomes with a rock and separate the starch from the dark ,horribly bitter and I presume toxic fibres , the fibres are coated in white starch obv this is Labour intensive and best left for experiments or survival scenarios

 

[Broch]

Interesting topic .....@Broch....are your other ferns similar in their growth ?

Not quite as extensive but there are areas deep in the wood where the ground is covered in Scaly Male-fern. We also have Broad Buckler Fern and Hay-Scented Buckler Fern that I can remember. I suspect there are still species in there we've not identified

 

[Billy-o]

Didn't know that the roots were thought to be carcinogenic. Though I do remember being told when I was younger that rolling around in the bracken could be bad for you as the dust from the dried plants could be carcinogenic.

But anyway we used to smoke the dried stalks as kids. Banatellas

 

[forrestdweller]

they were once eaten by the Maori in the southern part of New Zealand as the climate was too cold for kumara (= sweet potato) -- as soon as potatoes were introduced they stopped eating fern rhizomes...

the pickled fiddle heads are eaten in Japan and South Korea but i ate them very sparingly due to the (supposed) health risk -- additionally i've seen south koreans leave their cars in the middle of a road in a blind spot in more than one occasion to collect them from the verge of a multi-lane highway where they were "nicely" enriched with pollutants, so " no, thanks" for me...

 

[Billy-o]

Fiddleheads here are lovely - bit chewy, not stringy, and with a super earthy flavour ... best tossed in a pan with bacon plus some salt and maple syrup.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Broch you certainly know your fern species

I personally wouldn't consider ever eating bracken in any form. It contains various carcinogens and other toxins in both the spores (although bracken spores infrequently) and the plant itself. Notably, it also contains a compound that leads to inhibition of the breakdown of carbohydrates and therefore if you eat bracken, you will derive no benefits from any carbs you might also be consuming at the same time. The fact that historically fiddleheads or rhizomes might have been eaten is of no reassurance - to me at least - because no one would have been able to make the connections to the toxic effects. Similar situation to comfrey etc.

 

[Spirit fish]

Broch you certainly know your fern species

I personally wouldn't consider ever eating bracken in any form. It contains various carcinogens and other toxins in both the spores (although bracken spores infrequently) and the plant itself. Notably, it also contains a compound that leads to inhibition of the breakdown of carbohydrates and therefore if you eat bracken, you will derive no benefits from any carbs you might also be consuming at the same time. The fact that historically fiddleheads or rhizomes might have been eaten is of no reassurance - to me at least - because no one would have been able to make the connections to the toxic effects. Similar situation to comfrey etc.

It was a staple of native Americans of the Pacific northwest iv extensively read into ethnobotanical records about this ,so my experiments are not unfounded but I did state in my post it's controversial

 

[Toddy]

Is it the same plant that we call bracken though ?

 

[Spirit fish]

Is it the same plant that we call bracken though ?

yes bracket fe rn " the scientific name was the same it's long though have to look it up to spell it right

 

[forrestdweller]

Is it the same plant that we call bracken though ?

i remember reading somewhere that pteridium aquilinum can be found on every continent except Antarctica... wouldn't be the first time, though that a plant or animal has been given a name which has nothing to to with it(f.i. the local name for opossum means "bald fox" in english even though it's no fox @all) or the same name means different things in different languages(f.i. "tuna": in english the fish you buy in cans, in spanish ==prickly pear" in Maori == eel)