Ostrich fern

Matteuccia struthiopteris

"Matteuccia" is a genus of ferns with one species, "Matteuccia struthiopteris". It is a crown-forming, colony-forming plant, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in central and northern Europe, northern Asia, and northern North America.
Ostrich Fern - Matteuccia struthiopteris Not a very clear shot, but I thought it was neat to be able to see the tiny veins in the fronds. Habitat: Deciduous forest Geotagged,Matteuccia struthiopteris,Ostrich fern,Spring,United States

Appearance

It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.

The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100–170 cm tall and 20–35 cm broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name. The fertile fronds are shorter, 40–60 cm 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.
Fiddlehead Fern The unfurled, sterile leaves, which first appear above ground during the spring, are rolled and circular in shape. At this stage of development, they are referred to as 'fiddleheads' or 'croziers'. These fiddleheads are especially prized in the northeastern United States, where they are collected, sold, and eaten as gourmet food. Geotagged,Matteuccia struthiopteris,Ostrich fern,Spring,United States,crozier,fern,fiddlehead fern,ostrich fern

Predators

"Matteuccia" species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including "Sthenopis auratus".
Fiddlehead Fern A clump-forming, deciduous fern, which may reach 6' tall in the wild. I only found plants that were dormant from the winter. The unfurled, sterile leaves, when they first appear above the ground during the spring, are rolled and circular in shape. At that stage of development, they are referred to as 'fiddleheads' or 'croziers'. these fiddleheads are especially prized in the northeastern United States, where they are collected, sold, and eaten as gourmet food. Geotagged,Matteuccia struthiopteris,Ostrich fern,Spring,United States,fern,fiddlehead fern,ostrich fern,shuttlecock fern

Uses

The ostrich fern is a popular ornamental plant in gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. 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. The tightly wound immature fronds, called fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked vegetable, and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America. It is considered inadvisable to eat uncooked fiddleheads.

The sprouts are also picked all over Japan, where they are a delicacy.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionPolypodiophyta
ClassPolypodiopsida
OrderPolypodiales
FamilyOnocleaceae
GenusMatteuccia
SpeciesM. struthiopteris
Photographed in
Belgium
United States of America