This week, I’m featuring Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
A Mi’kmaq haiku, entitled “Kejimkoojik” (meaning “little fairies”), by writer Alice Azure, from the collection entitled “Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England,” edited by Siobhan Senier, et. al. (Vol. 1, 2014):
Kejimkoojik
cliffs, old sweet fern petroglyph
still keeping us calm.
Description:
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/sweet-fern#lboxg-5
Sweetfern is a small, native, aromatic mound-shaped shrub, 2-5 feet tall that has ascending to widely spreading branches with fine twigs and occurs in dense colonies. The bark of branches and twigs is gray or reddish brown, more or less smooth, with scattered white lenticels. Young shoots are light green to light brown, and very pubescent, becoming less pubescent with age.
Alternate leaves occur along the twigs and shoots. These leaves are 2-6″ long and ¼-1″ across; they are narrowly oblong to oblong-elliptic in shape and the edges of which are rolled back and rounded, with a fern-like division. The upper surface of mature leaves is medium green to olive-green and smooth to slightly short-pubescent, while the lower surface is light green and nearly smooth to short-pubescent. Immature leaves, in contrast to the mature leaves, are yellowish green and more heavily covered with silky hairs (especially along their undersides). The leaves also have glandular resin-dots; leaves and twigs are very aromatic, so much so that on a warm day the fragrance can be detected at some distance without crushing its leaves. The leaf stems are less than ½” long, light green, more or less pubescent, and relatively stout.
Photo Credit: (c) 2015 Peter M. Dziuk, https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/sweet-fern#lboxg-3
Male and female flowers are borne separately on the same plant (monoecious) or different plants (dioecious) in clusters called catkins; flowering occurs before leaves emerge. Male catkins are drooping and cylindrical, ½ to 1¼ inches long, mostly crowded at tips of one-year-old twigs, with 25 to 50 flowers each with a sharply pointed scale-like bract and 3 to 8 pale stamens. Female catkins are erect, round to egg-shaped, 1/16 to 1/6 inch long and ovoid to globoid in shape, with 20 to 45 flowers each located below the male catkins when present or at branch tips when not.
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/sweet-fern#lboxg-1
Afterwards, the female catkins are replaced by bristly fruits that span about ¾” across; each fruit contains a cluster of 8 to 15 nutlets at its center and numerous bristly bractlets. At maturity, individual nutlets are 3-5 mm. long and ovoid in shape. The seeds contain a powerful germination inhibitor and can remain dormant but viable in the soil for as long as 70 years (Del Tredici, P. 1977. The buried seeds of Comptonia peregrina, the sweet fern. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 104: 270-275.).
The fall color of Sweetfern is initially reddish, then turning brown.
Photo Credit: (c) G.D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/sweetfern.html
Still, even after becoming a dark brown color, the leaves of this colonizing plant adds interest in the autumn landscape.
Culinary and Medicinal Uses:
The young fruits are eaten as a pleasant nibble. The fresh aromatic leaves are used to make a palatable tea and are also used as a seasoning, such as to infuse baked or broiled fish with its flavor or to infuse a bottle of rye whiskey to make a woodsy cocktail. Sweetfern also makes an excellent rub for meat and fish.
Sweetfern has served a medical function due to its ability to act as an astringent, blood purifier, expectorant, and tonic. North American Indians used it as a poultice for wounds or sprains, and to make a tea to cure diarrhea, headache, or fever. Additionally, Sweetfern can be used topically to relieve itchiness from poison ivy or stings by infusing cold water with fresh leaves. Due to its astringent properties, the Shakers found Sweetfern to be of importance for maladies such as cholera, dysentery, debility following fevers, bruises, rheumatism and for diarrhea. It is still used for most of the same purposes in modern herbalism. Leaves are harvested in early summer and dried for later use.
Wildlife Value:
Sweetfern is a host plant to the caterpillars of a number of moths and butterflies:
- Apple Sphinx (Sphinx gordius)
- Blackberry Looper Moth (Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria)
- Bucculatrix paropti
- Cherry Casebearer Moth (Coleophora pruniella)
- Cigar Casebearer Moth (Coleophora serratella)
- Coleophora gaylussaciella
- Coleophora persimplexella
- Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)
- Io moth (Automeris io)
- Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)
The Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) feeds on the buds and catkins, while the White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browses on the twigs and foliage. Two bird species, the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) and Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), have been observed to feed on the nutlets of this small shrub. More importantly, colonies of Sweetfern growing around and in between the bases of Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) provide safe nesting habitat for a Federally endangered bird, Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii).
Where Found Locally:
Sweetfern most often occurs in poor, sandy or gravelly, infertile soils, such as along roadsides. Habitats include upland sand prairies, sandy shrub prairies, and sandy upland savannas. Dominant trees in these savannas are oak trees (especially Black Oak (Quercus velutina)) and sometimes pine trees are present (especially Jack Pine). The root system can develop clonal offsets from underground runners, often creating colonies of plants. Dry, sterile, often sandy soil of open woodlands, pastures, old fields, and clearings; usually in full sun.
In New York, Sweetfern is a characteristic plant found in these ecological communities:
Locally, this native plant can be observed at any of these parks, trails, and nature preserves.
Curious By Nature 