“Nature made ferns for pure leaves, to see what she could do in that line,” wrote the 19th century American author Henry David Thoreau. And indeed, leaves are what ferns are all about – delicate, feathery, intricate leaves, aching up from the ground. Ferns ahve no flowers to steal the show from their greenery; they don’t need flowers to add to their beauty.

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Ferns have another distinction: They were among the first plants to have proper roots and leaves. The ancestors of modern ferns appeared some 300 million years ago. During the Mesozoic era – the age of dinosaurs – ferns reached the size of tall trees. Ferns provided some of the vegetable matter that formed Earth’s coal deposits millions of years ago.

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There are still some treelike ferns, but the ones most of us know today are much smaller – 3 feet (1 meter) tall or less. Still, ferns remain remarkable plants. Their method of reproduction – without flowers or seeds – is completely unlike that of the other plants we’re familiar with. Their soft green beauty makes them a favorite of gardeners and woodland strollers. And, over the years, people have found many uses for these appealing plants.

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Uses For Ferns

One of the simpliest uses people have found for ferns is to eat them. Both the rhizomes and the new shoots, or fiddleheads, of certain varieties have been prized as delicacies in certain parts of the world, and the leaves of some types have been used to make tea. Today some supermarkets even carry fiddleheads, fresh (in season) or frozen.

In times gone by, people also made medicine from ferns. Several types of maidenhair ferns, native to North America and Europe, were used to make cough syrups and similar medicines. Oak fern was against arthritis as well as respiratory problems. Wall rue, a common European fern that grows in rock crevices, was thought to cure swollen glands. The American Indians made a tonic from the rhizome of the common lady fern, and they treated snake bites with a poultice made from the roots of the rattlesnake fern. A concoction made from the root of the male fern is still used in many countries to rid people and animals of intestinal parasites.

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Ferns were also used to make a primitive sort of shampoo, said to be especially good for preventing baldness. Sweet-scented dried ferns were included in potpourri and sachets. Bracken, a common fern that grows along roadsides and in open areas in Europe and North America, was used as bedding for farm animals and thatched roofing for houses. In medieval times, ash from burnt bracken was used as an ingredient in glass and in soap. The reason the ashes were used was that they were high in alkali, which is necessary for both materials.

People also entertained some strange beliefs about certain ferns. wall rue, for instance, was fed to cows to ward off evil spells that might sour their milk.