( Plant Index )
ADDER’S TONGUE
Order: Ophioglossales
Family: Ophioglossaceae
Names: Adder’s Tongue Family
A small family of ferns typically characterized by a single fleshy leaf at a time.
Two genera draw our attention within this family: the adder’s tongues (Ophioglossum) and the moonworts (Botrychium).
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Genus: Ophiglossum
Family: Ophioglossaceae
Species: Ophioglossum vulgatum
Names:
- Adder's Tongue
- Adder's Fern
- Adder's Spear
- Adderstongue Fern
- Adderwort
- Christ's Spear
- Common Adder's Tongue
- Langue De Serpent [French]
- Mao She Cao [Chinese]
- Natterntunge [German]
- Natterzunge [German]
- Ofioglosso [Italian]
- Ophioglosse [French]
- Ormetunge [Danish]
- Ormtunga [Swedish]
- Ormtungefamilien [Norwegian]
- Slangetunge [Danish/Norwegian]
- Snake Fern
- Snake Tongue
- Språkört [Swedish]
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| Ophioglossum vulgatum |
Distribution:
- Africa, Northern: Algeria, Morocco
- Asia, Central: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tibet, Uzbekistan
- Asia, East: China (China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast), Japan, Korea, Mongolia
- Asia, Northern: Russia (Altay, Buryatiya, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk, Krym, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Sakhalin, West Siberia)
- Asia, South: Nepal
- Asia, West: Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
- Europe, Central: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland
- Europe, Eastern: Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine
- Europe, Northern: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
- Europe, Southern: Albania, Croatia, Greece (including Crete), Italy (including Sardinia, Sicily), North Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain
- Europe, Western: Belgium, England, France (including Corsica), Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland
Physical Description
There is only one species in this genus that we think is worth commenting on: Ophioglossum vulgatum.
Adder’s tongue ferns are small plants roughly 10-20cm (sometimes 30cm) tall, formed of a central budding structure with radiating roots. This bulb produces a single fleshy leaf, named for the spore-bearing stalk that forks from the leaf stalk. The spore-bearing stalk resembles a snake’s tongue.
The spore stalk is only sometimes present, and sometimes not even the leaf. Adder’s tongues are known to go without any leaves at all for more than a year, living completely underground and relying on soil fungi to metabolize for them.
These plants tend to occur singly in pastures, rock crevices, and the like but are sometimes found in colonies of hundreds in sandy deserts.
These are rare in Europe.
Medical
We are not a medical blog; do not take health advice from us.
Wounds
Traditional European folk medicine calls for this plant’s leaves and rhizomes to be used in a poultice for wounds, called the “Green Oil of Charity.”
Hemorrhage
Adder’s tongue tea was a European folk remedy thought to treat internal bleeding.
Nausea/Vomiting
Adder’s tongue tea was a European folk remedy thought to prevent vomiting.
Compiler Notes
- Obvious snake and lying associations. Exploit.
- “Green Oil of Charity” is a curious name. Look into further and exploit.
- “Adder’s Spear” provides some possibilities for faeries, possibly with pixies using the leaves of Ophioglossum as militia armories.
- Alternately, it might be used as a reagent for at-distance weapon recall.
- Could be used as a reagent to curse someone with venom at-distance.
Image Refs
( https://www.flora-of-cyprus.eu/cdm_dataportal/taxon/37a0ebe9-00da-4318-a1ab-0ada2b8df6a8 )
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Genus: Botrychium
Family: Ophioglossaceae
Species: Botrychium lunaria
Names:
- Moonwort
- Common Moonwort
- Crescent Fern
- Crescent-Cup Moonwort
- Grape Fern
- Half-Moon Fern
- Hemlock Moonwort
- Key of the Moon
- Leathery Grape-Fern
- Little Grape Fern
- Lunaria
- Lunary
- Maanruutu [Finnish]
- Maanvaren [Dutch]
- Månelure [Danish]
- Månruta [Swedish]
- Martagon
- Midsummer Moonwort
- Mondraute [German]
- Moonwort Fern
- Narrenfarn [German]
- Osmunda Lunata [Latin]
- Petite Fougère [French]
- Rautayrtti [Finnish]
- Rue Fern
- Ruta De Lunaria [Spanish]
- Ruta Lunaria [Italian]
- Small Moonwort
- St. Mary's Herb
- Traubenfarn [German]
- Unshoe-the-Horse
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| Botrychium lunaria on Minuartia sedoides, Mountain pass of Iseran, Vanoise montains (73), France. July 2008. Own Product -- Abalg |
Distribution:
- Africa, Northern: Morocco
- Asia, Central: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tibet, Uzbekistan
- Asia, East: China (China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria), Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan
- Asia, Northern: Russia (Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, Central European Russia, Chita, East European Russia, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Krym, Kuril Is., Magadan, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Primorye, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Yakutskiya)
- Asia, South: Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan
- Asia, West: Iran, Turkey
- Europe, Central: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland
- Europe, Eastern: Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine
- Europe, Northern: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
- Europe, Southern: Albania, Croatia, Greece, Italy (including Sardinia, Sicily), North Macedonia, Portugal (including Azores, Madeira), Serbia, Slovenia, Spain
- Europe, Western: Belgium, England, France (including Corsica), Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland
- Oceania: Australia (New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria), New Zealand (New Zealand South)
Physical Description
Moonworts are small ferns with fleshy roots, producing a single leaf and a spore stalk. A few species only occasionally emerge from the ground. Like many Ophioglossum, they can rely on fungi to metabolize for them for extended periods while staying underground.
Small plant up to 30cm tall. Splits into a sterile frond and fertile frond.
Grows in dry to moist short grassland, small woods, heaths, moors, etc. It is relatively rare in forests. Occasionally found in dune slacks.
Symbolism
In modern flower language, the moonwort means “forgetfulness.” (This may actually be referring to Genus [Lunaria].)
Magic
This fern was thought to undo mechanisms. If one were to take a moonwort fern growing near a doorstep, one could insert it into the keyhole of the same door and thus freely open it. The same applied to fetters, regardless of mechanism. This property applied even to the shoes on a horse’s feet, undoing the nails if the horse crossed a pasture where the moonwort grows (hence the name “unshoe-the-horse”).
Compiler Notes
- “Martagon” sounds like a particularly aggressive name for a faerie. Keep in mind that for a faerie warrior of some kind,
- This subversion of mechanism also has a gremlin-like quality. Perhaps “Martagon” is a gremlin?
- This mechanism could also be crossed with the flower language (likely appropriated later from [Lunaria]). The lock “forgets” to stay locked, the horseshoes “forget” to shoe, and so on.
- The forked moonwort might be a good model for the tongue of a reptilian or draconic faerie or dragon. Finding a faerie dragon as a familiar in a fantasy story or RPG involves pulling the dragon up out of the ground by the tongue and having to discern it from surrounding moonworts. This would also give the familiar a distinct lunar aspect for magical or thematic reasons, possibly an oracular function as the moon’s tongue (and, therefore, voice)!
- “Key of the moon” can be exploited any number of ways, particularly in regards to dreams or passage into a lunar otherworld.
- “Key of the moon” could also be ground and used in some way (possibly as a fumigant) to unlock the virtues of moon stone (either the orthoclase [feldspar] or the [gypsum], selenite).
Image Refs
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Botrychium_lunaria_(Vanoise).JPG )
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Species: Botrychium matricariifolium
Names:
- Grape Fern
- Chamomile Grape Fern
- Daisyleaf Grape Fern
- Matricary Grape Fern
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| Botrychium matricariifolium |
Distribution:
- America, North: Canada (Labrador, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec), United States (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin)
- Europe, Central: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland
- Europe, Eastern: Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine
- Europe, Northern: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
- Europe, Southern: Croatia, Italy, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain
- Europe, Western: France
Physical Description
A small, fleshy fern up to 30cm tall. The lead blades may be up to 10cm long and 9cm wide. The fertile leaves are longer.
While native to Europe, these grape ferns are very rare.
Compiler Notes
- Retained for names and distribution.
- Applying the transitive property to the mystical fern flower and fern seed of legend, a grape fern might produce an elusive magical vine with magical grapes. The fern’s rarity compounds this.
- “Making fern wine” could describe a pointless and costly pursuit.
Image Refs
( https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/fern/matricary-grapefern )
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See Also:
Prestigious Plants
- Plants
- Flowers
- Trees
- Ferns
- Moss and Lichen [Pending]
- Fungi [Pending]
- Cladistic Index
- Herbal Medicine [Pending]
- Resin, Incense, Balsam, and Lacquer [Pending]
Other Ferns
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Sources:
-Greenaway, Kate. Language of Flowers. George Routleage and Sons.
-Skinner, Charles M. “Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants : In All Ages and in All Climes : Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery), 1852-1907 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott Co., 1 Jan. 1970, https://archive.org/details/mythslegendsoffl00skin.
( https://powo.science.kew.org/ )
( https://www.secretflowerlanguage.com/ ) - Defunct
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrychium )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrychium_lunaria )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrychium_matricariifolium )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophioglossaceae )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophioglossum )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophioglossum_vulgatum )
Name assistance provided by Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
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