Polystichum munitum

common name

western swordfern

food

Northwest coastal tribes used sword fern leaves to line fire pits for cooking, and line baskets and drying racks. The rhizomes could be eaten by peeling and then steaming or roasting them. The leaves and/or stems could be made into tea for certain maladies.

pain relief

The Coast Salish people of B.C. and Washington state use this plant as a pain reliever. When applied directly to the area where pain and inflammation occur, according to Della Rice Sylvester, an elder and medicine woman of the Cowichan tribe, the sword fern “takes the pain away!”. This traditional use has spread among the hiking communities and youth scouting organizations of the region, where it is a common piece of hiker’s lore that a rash from a stinging nettle can be counteracted by rubbing the spores on the underside of sword fern on the area.

random

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species of

fern

spores

Spores: reproductive spores are gold-red-brown and appear on the underside of leaf fronds year round

tags

species

Wikipedia

Polystichum munitum (Wikipedia) Polystichum munitum, the western swordfern, is an evergreen perennial fern native to western North America, where it is one of the most abundant ferns in forested areas. It occurs along the Pacific coast from southeastern Alaska to southern California, and also inland east to southeastern British Columbia, northern Idaho and western Montana, with disjunctive populations in northern British Columbia, Canada; the Black Hills in South Dakota, United States; and Guadalupe Island off of Baja California, Mexico. Western swordfern is known to have locally naturalized in parts of Great Britain and Ireland.