Matteuccia

The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, {{convert|100|–|170|cm|in|abbr=on}} tall and {{convert|20|–|35|cm|in|abbr=on}} broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name.{{cite web|url=https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=285874|title=Matteuccia struthiopteris|publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden|access-date=28 May 2023|quote=The showy parts of this fern are the finely dissected, medium green, vegetative (sterile) fronds which, as the common name suggests, exhibit the feathery appearance of long ostrich plumes.}} The fertile fronds are shorter, {{convert|40|–|65|cm|in|abbr=on}} long, brown when ripe, 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.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

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.{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2445820 |title=Molecular systematics and a revised taxonomy of the onocleoid ferns (Dryopteridaceae: Onocleeae) |first1=GJ |last1=Gastony |first2=MC |last2=Ungerer |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=84 |issue=6 |pages=840–849 |year=1997 |pmid=21708636 |jstor=2445820 |doi-access= }} Formerly classified as a member of the Dryopteridaceae, Matteuccia has been reassigned to the new much smaller family Onocleaceae.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

File:Matteuccia struthiopteris 021.jpg, Quebec, Canada]]

It is a crown-forming, colony-forming plant, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in central and northern Europe,[http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=matteuccia+struthiopteris Altervista Flora Italiana, Felce penna di struzzo, Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Tod.] northern Asia,{{eFloras|2|200004215|Matteuccia struthiopteris |family=Onocleaceae |first1=Fuwu |last1=Xing |last2=Wang |first2=Faguo |first3=Masahiro |last3=Kato}} and northern North America.{{BONAP|ref |genus=Matteuccia |species=struthiopteris |state=1}} 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.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

File:Matteuccia struthipteris.jpg

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

The ostrich fern is a popular ornamental plant in gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.{{cite web |title=RHS Plant Selector - Matteuccia struthiopteris |url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/10920/matteuccia-struthiopteris/details |access-date=21 September 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-ornamentals.pdf#page=75 |title=AGM Plants - Ornamental |date=April 2023 |page=75 |publisher=Royal Horticultural Society |access-date=28 May 2023}} 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.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The tightly wound immature fronds, called fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked vegetable,{{Cite web |title=Bulletin #4198, Facts on Fiddleheads - Cooperative Extension Publications - University of Maine Cooperative Extension |url=https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/4198e/ |access-date=2021-01-02 |website=Cooperative Extension Publications |language=en-US}} and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America.{{cite web|url=https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/MN/Matteuccia|title=Plant 78 — Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro (Onocleaceae) — Ostrich fern|last=Harris|first=Stephen|department=Biology|website=Oxford Plants 400|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=11 June 2024|quote=In Norway, the fern was apparently used to make beer, whilst in Russia it controlled gut parasites. Today, ostrich fern fiddleheads remain an important element of the rural economy of the American state of Maine; the rituals of harvest and consumption being seen as culturally important in the state.}} It is considered inadvisable to eat uncooked fiddleheads.{{cite journal|last1=Dhir|first1=S Bryn|date=June 2020|title=Fiddlehead Fern Poisoning: A Case Report|journal=Wilderness & Environmental Medicine|location=Austin, Texas, USA|publisher=Sage Publishing|publication-date=June 2020|volume=31|issue=2|pages=226–229|doi=10.1016/j.wem.2019.12.011|doi-access=free|pmid=32327371 |issn=1080-6032|quote=Outdoor enthusiasts are at a high risk of poisonous side effects after ingestion of wild and raw edible fiddlehead ferns, such as the ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and bracken (Pteridium genus) species, in the United States and Canada.}} Brown "scales" are inedible and should be scraped or rinsed off.{{Cite book |last1=Elias |first1=Thomas S. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/244766414 |title=Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods |last2=Dykeman |first2=Peter A. |publisher=Sterling |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4027-6715-9 |location=New York |pages=58 |oclc=244766414 |orig-year=1982}}

The sprouts are also picked all over Japan, ("kogomi" in Japanese){{Cite news|last=LaPointe |first=Rick |title=Let us go fiddlehead foragin', but carefully |newspaper=The Japan Times |location=Tokyo |date=21 April 2002 |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20020421rl.html |access-date=13 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320233942/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20020421rl.html |archive-date=20 March 2011 }} as well as in other Asian regions,{{cite journal |pmid=25973486 |year=2015 |last1=Dion |first1=C |title=Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory and antioxidative potential of four fern species from China intended for use as food supplements |journal=Natural Product Communications |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=597–603 |last2=Haug |first2=C |last3=Guan |first3=H |last4=Ripoll |first4=C |last5=Spiteller |first5=P |last6=Coussaert |first6=A |last7=Boulet |first7=E |last8=Schmidt |first8=D |last9=Wei |first9=J |last10=Zhou |first10=Y |last11=Lamottke |first11=K |doi=10.1177/1934578X1501000416 |s2cid=8419285 |doi-access=free }} 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.

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

Its base hosts the mushroom Woldmaria filiformis, which is uniquely linked with this species of fern.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category-inline|Matteuccia struthiopteris}}

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

{{Plant classification}}

{{Fern classification}}

{{Taxonbar|from1=Q1130386|from2=Q304969}}

Category:Polypodiales

Category:Ferns of Asia

Category:Ferns of the Americas

Category:Ferns of Europe

Category:Ferns of the United States

Category:Flora of Asia

Category:Flora of Europe

Category:Flora of Northern America

Category:Leaf vegetables

Category:Perennial vegetables

Category:Japanese vegetables

Category:Garden plants of Asia

Category:Garden plants of Europe

Category:Garden plants of North America

Category:Monotypic fern genera