Peeking at the undersides of licorice fern fronds at this time of year often rewards you with a display of their orange, naked sori. The sori are clusters of sporangia, or spore-containing structures (see this illustration of the fern life cycle). The term naked is used because the sori lack a protective covering called the indusium; for comparison, here's a photograph of sori (partially) covered by indusia on Polystichum.
The epithet glycyrrhiza means sweet root and refers to the genus Glycyrrhiza, a member of the bean family. The root of Glycyrrhiza is better known as licorice (or liquorice). The rhizomes and stems of Polypodium glycyrrhiza are similarly flavoured, hence the common name of licorice fern.
Polypodium glycyrrhiza is distributed along the coastal regions of western North America, as well as the Kamchatka region of Asia. The Hardy Fern Library provides a detailed description of licorice fern.
Lovely colors and textures!
Are there any dangers to tasting the sap from a rhizome or stem? Someone commented on a fern photo of mine once "Did the rhizome taste like licorice?" My deep fear of plant poisonings made me recoil at the thought.
This is truly Art in Nature - remarkable!
Great photography combined with illuminating education. Fascinating. Thanks so much.
Oh. Wow. This just took my breath away! I love the exquisite detail brought to us in these photos. Thank you for the views and for the botanic information!
Does this identification follow the recent interpretation, which splits the local species? I haven't paid enough attention to be able to tell from the pictures.
I do appreciate the photograph today. It seem lately I have the oppotunity to see things other wise out of my area. This turely is a learning experience.
Thank you,
Margaret-Rae
this is another fine picture and links to
read my part of florida grows a lot of ferns
and big stag horns thank you nice to read the leaves have turned in ma i used to live there
and erics page is under constrction but looks
just fine
eric; I did taste the sap once as a friend had indicated to me that it was edible. Both she and i each sucked on a 1 inch piece of rhizome. Unfortunately, hours later, i got very sick, but she didn't. I don't have the desire to suck on the rhizome anymore.
We chewed on a piece of the rhizome yesterday on our walk in the bush.. it is a very concentrated licorice flavour for sure... I live on Vancouver Island, and it is plentiful here...