Sweetfern

Appearance

''Comptonia peregrina'' is a deciduous shrub, growing to 1.5 m tall. The leaves of the plant are linear to lanceolate, 3–15 cm long and 0.3–3 c broad, with a lobed margin; they give off a sweet odor, especially when crushed.

Plants are monoecious with separate unisexual flowers. The staminate flowers grow in clusters at the ends of branches, and are up to 5 cm long. The pistillate flowers are only 5 mm, but elongate when the fruits form, reaching 5 cm.

Naming

The common name is sweetfern or sweet-fern.

Comptonia peregrina (L.) Coult.
Comptonia asplenifolia L.
Myrica asplenifolia (L.) Ait.
Comptonia aspleniifolia (L.) L'Hér.
Comptonia ceterach Mirb.
Comptonia peregrina var. aspleniifolia (L.) Fernald
Comptonia peregrina var. tomentosa A.Chev.
Liquidambar aspleniifolia (L.) L.
Liquidambar peregrina L.
Myrica aspleniifolia L.
Myrica aspleniifolia var. tomentosa (A.Chev.) Gleason
Myrica comptonia C.DC.
Myrica peregrina (L.) Kuntze

Distribution

''Comptonia peregrina'' is native to eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec in the north, east to Nova Scotia, to Georgia in the south, and west to Minnesota. It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with pine stands.

Behavior

It is a non-legume nitrogen fixer.

Habitat

Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec in the north, east to Nova Scotia, to Georgia in the south, and west to Minnesota. It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with pine stands.

Part shade, sun; dry, acidic, sandy or rocky soil; pine barrens, clearings, upland prairie, savanna.

Reproduction

Seeds and rhizomes. Plants are either staminate or pistillate. Flowers are wind pollinated.

Predators

Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Bucculatrix paropti, grey pug, setaceous Hebrew character, Io moth, and several Coleophora case-bearers: C. comptoniella, C. peregrinaevorella, C. persimplexella, C. pruniella and C. serratella.

Uses

The plant produces a bristly burr that contains 1 to 4 edible nutlets.

The aromatic leaves are also used to make a tea. The Canadian author Catharine Parr Traill includes it in her book ''The Female Emigrant's Guide'' in a list of substitutes for China tea. "When boiled," she notes, "it has a slightly resinous taste, with a bitter flavour, that is not very unpleasant." Mistaking it, like others, for a fern, she says that it is in high repute "among the Yankee and old Canadian housewifes." Tea made from the plant has been said to treat the affects of poison ivy when applied to the affected area. The plant has also been used as a seasoning.

Sweet fern is planted as a landscape plant because of its fern-like, aromatic foliage and stems. Because it fixes nitrogen, sweet fern is useful for rehabilitation of disturbed sites. Sweet fern has limited use as a food source and cover for wildlife. The fruits are consumed by flickers, moose and deer browse sweet fern, and prairie chickens and sharptailed grouse use it for nesting cover. The leaves can be used for potpourri and tea. The chemical betulin occurs in the leaves, root, and stem of sweet fern, and its biological activities have been described.