Matteuccia

Matteuccia is a genus of ferns with one species: Matteuccia struthiopteris (common names ostrich fern, fiddlehead fern, or shuttlecock fern).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The species epithet struthiopteris comes from Ancient Greek words Template:Lang (Template:Grc-tr) "ostrich" and Template:Lang (Template:Grc-tr) "fern".<ref name=Tropicos/>

Description

The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, Template:Convert tall<ref name=":0" /> and Template:Convert broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip,<ref name=":0" /> so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The fertile fronds are shorter, Template:Convert long, brown when ripe,<ref name=":0" /> 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. Along with Dryopteris goldieana, it is one of the largest species of fern in eastern North America.Template:Citation needed

Classification

Matteuccia struthiopteris is the only species in the genus Matteuccia. Some sources include two Asian species, M. orientalis and M. intermedia, but molecular data shows that M. struthiopteris is more closely related to Onocleopsis and Onoclea (sensitive fern) than it is to M. orientalis and M. intermedia, and so the latter should be moved to a genus Pentarhizidium which contains those two species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Formerly classified as a member of the Dryopteridaceae, Matteuccia has been reassigned to the new much smaller family Onocleaceae.Template:Citation needed

Distribution

Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, Canada

It is a crown-forming, colony-forming plant, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in central and northern Europe,<ref>Altervista Flora Italiana, Felce penna di struzzo, Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Tod.</ref> northern Asia,<ref>Template:EFloras</ref> and northern North America.<ref>Template:BONAP</ref> It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns. It can thus form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.Template:Citation needed

Cultivation and uses

File:Matteuccia struthipteris.jpg

Spore-bearing fertile fronds in early spring

File:Fiddlehead sprouts as food in Tokyo area march 9 2020.jpeg

Fiddlehead sprouts for sale in Japan

The ostrich fern is a popular ornamental plant in gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While choosing a place of planting it should be taken into account that this fern is very expansive and its leaves often lose their beauty throughout the summer, especially if not protected from wind and hail.Template:Citation needed

The tightly wound immature fronds, called fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked vegetable,<ref name="umaine">Template:Cite web</ref> and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America.<ref name=UofOx>Template:Cite web</ref> It is considered inadvisable to eat uncooked fiddleheads.<ref name="umaine" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Brown "scales" are inedible and should be scraped or rinsed off.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

The sprouts are also picked all over Japan, ("kogomi" in Japanese)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as in other Asian regions,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> where they are considered a delicacy.

Additionally, in Norway, fiddleheads were apparently used in the manufacture of beer, and in Russia, in the control of gut parasites.<ref name=UofOx/>

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

Fungal host

Its base hosts the mushroom Woldmaria filiformis, which is uniquely linked with this species of fern.Template:Citation needed

Sources

• Hyde, H. A., Wade, A. E., & Harrison, S. G. (1978). Welsh Ferns. National Museum of Wales.