Indicator Plants

• One of the world’s most ancient and widespread ferns,
• Grows from lush forests to sterile or even acidic soils
• Occurs from low to subalpine elevations
• Weedy

• Form: solitary fronds (large divided leaf), erect and up to 3 m tall with much-branched rhizomes
• Leaves:
  • Blades triangular in shape and 2-3 times pinnate
  • Stipes yellow to green and longer than the blades
  • Lowest leaflet pair broadly triangular
  • Leaflet margins rolled under
• Sori: marginal and continuous

• Dryopteris expansa (spiny wood fern)
  • leaflet pair closest to base is asymmetrical in spiny but symmetrical/triangle-shaped in bracken

• can release allelopathic chemicals, especially when establishing after a fire, that locally limit growth & establishment of other plants
• Fiddleheads have been consumed by people of different cultures worldwide, though they are now known to be carcinogenic

E-Flora of BC - Pteridium aquilinum

Douglas, G.W. et al (Editors). 1998-2002. Illustrated Flora of British Columbia, Volumes 1 to 8. B.C. Min. Environ., Lands and Parks, and B.C. Min. For., Victoria, B.C.

Pojar, J. and A. MacKinnon. 2014. Plants of Coastal British Columbia Including Washington, Oregon & Alaska. B.C. Ministry of Forestry and Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, B.C.