Prestigious Plants - Ferns 04 - Ladyfern

( Plant Index ) 

LADYFERN

Genus: Athyrium
Family: Athyriaceae
Species: Athyrium filix-femina
Names: 

• Ladyfern
• Berglarsläktet [Swedish]
• Common Lady Fern
• Dryopteris [Ancient Greek]
• Dryoptéride Fougère-Femelle [French]
• Frauenfarn [German]
• Frueburkne [Danish]
• Gewone Wijfjesvaren [Dutch]
• Harpu Fern [Turkish]
• Hiirenporras [Finnish]
• Majomkosbor [Hungarian]
• Markbräken [Swedish]
• Mjukbräken [Swedish]
• Narabu [Japanese]
• Nur [Turkish]
• Ormbunke [Swedish]
• Paproć Samica [Polish]
• Rhedyn Benywaidd [Welsh]
• Samica [Polish]
• Scolopendrium [Ancient Greek]
• Skogburkne [Norwegian]
• Skovbregne [Danish]
• Sloat [Irish]
• Soreivarre [Finnish]
• Suikervarens [Dutch]
• Wijfjesvaren [Dutch]
• Without-Shield

Athyrium filix-femina, Jesmond Dene, Newcastle, Northumberland, UK;
11 May 2006

Distribution: Cosmopolitan.

• Africa, Northern: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia
• Asia, Central: Kazakhstan
• Asia, East: China (China North-Central), Japan, Korea, Mongolia
• Asia, Northern: Russia (Altay, Buryatiya, Central European Russia, Chita, East European Russia, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Krym, Kuril Is., Magadan, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Primorye, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Yakutskiya)
• Asia, West: 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, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
• Europe, Southern: Albania, Croatia, Greece (including Crete), Italy (including Sardinia, Sicily), North Macedonia, Portugal (including Azores, Madeira), Serbia, Slovenia, Spain (including the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands)
• Europe, Western: Belgium, England, France (including Corsica), Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland

Biome: Temperate, damp woodland.

Physical Description
Large, feathery ferns that are common in damp, shady woodland environments. It is named “ladyfern” because its reproductive structures are concealed (implying a ladylike modesty), in addition to its other elegant qualities and appearance.
The ladyfern’s fronds rise from a central point as a clump. The fronds are deciduous and a light yellow-green, roughly 20-90cm (7.9-35.4in) and 5-25cm (2.0-9.8in) broad.
Ladyferns are hardy, able to tolerate temperatures as low as -20°C.

Culture
According to Skinner, the Syrians engage in a wedding tradition involving henna and ladyfern. Before the ceremony, the fern leaf is printed on the bride’s hand. The leaf is applied to the back of the hand, washing the skin in the henna dye and staining the hand with the leaf print. This is where it gets the name “bride's gloves.” Skinner indicates that its purpose was apotropaic.

Food 
The young fiddleheads and rhizomes are both edible.

Compiler Notes

• There is an obvious interplay of the “lady” fern with the “male” fern [Dryopteris]. You could use them in spellcraft as counters to each other or in the sexually creative sense.
• The name “bride’s gloves” suggests the ideal of bridal maidenhood. Dovetailing with the name “without-shield” (which denotes vulnerability), this wraps up the class implication of “lady” with feminine fidelity and vulnerability. This could be cast negatively to reclassify these qualities as weaknesses or to magnify the qualities as virtues. Consider what materials you might pair with the ladyfern to achieve particular messaging.
• If one can attain an apotropaic effect from stenciling the back of the hand with a lady fern and applying henna, why can’t the same be done with other plants to a novel effect?
• The hardiness of the plant can easily translate as emblematic of feminine resilience.
• The name “without shield” could signify vulnerability in a flower arrangement. This could be "I come to you sincerely, without defensiveness," or "you are more vulnerable than you realize."
• Used magically, it could be employed in a spell to circumvent or negate the target’s existing magical protections, or to empower one with a boon that negates the need for a shield in combat.

Image Refs

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athyrium_filix-femina0.jpg )

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Species: Athyrium distentifolium
Names: 

• Alpine Ladyfern
• Alpiner Frauenfarn [German]
• Alpininiu Širdlapiu [Lithuanian]
• Alpski Gozdni Šaš [Slovenian]
• Bergburkne [Norwegian]
• Berglarsläktet [Swedish]
• Fjällbräken [Swedish]
• Fjell-Lodnebregne [Norwegian]
• Fjällbræken [Danish]
• Fross-Fern [German]
• Horská Papradka [Slovak]
• Kaljukivi-Sõnajalg [Estonian]
• Papratka Horská [Czech]
• Papratka Okrouhloštítá [Czech]
• Tundra Ladyfern
• Tunturi-Hiirenporras [Finnish]
• Tunturihiirenporras [Finnish]
• Upland Ladyfern

Athyrium distentifolium ssp. americanum growing near Chinook Pass, Washington State.
Own Work -- Jhorthos.

Distribution: Cosmopolitan Northern Hemisphere.

• Asia, East: Japan, Korea
• Asia, Northern: Russia (Altay, Buryatiya, East European Russia, Irkutsk, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya)
• Asia, West: Turkey
• Europe, Central: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland
• Europe, Eastern: Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine
• Europe, Northern: Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
• Europe, Southern: Croatia, Italy, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain
• Europe, Western: England, France (including Corsica), Scotland

Biome: Highland scree.

Physical Description
A common fern is found across the northern hemisphere, especially in the Highlands of Scotland (above 600m), notably on scree slopes.
Athyrium flexile, considered by many to be a synonym for distentifolium, is a small, deciduous fern found above 750m (2,460ft) on quartzite and granite screes in the Highlands, occasionally found as high as 900m. It is found only at four sites. It is snow-tolerant, with the snow lie protecting it from fronts. Typically found in cool, shaded, north-facing scree-slopes. Otherwise, it grows near acidic rocks, especially in places where the snow lies late into spring and melts slowly.

Compiler Notes

• Retained for name and distribution.
• The screes where flexile grows could be sacred to druids or similar nature-worshipers/-magi.

Image Refs

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_distentifolium#/media/File:Athyrium_distentifolium_JHT_IMG_8322.jpg )

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Species: Athyrium niponicum
Names: 

• Japanese Ladyfern
• Crested Japanese Painted Fern
• Ghost Fern
• Glow-In-The-Dark Fern
• Inumori Shida [Japanese]
• Japanese Painted Fern
• Japanese Silver Fern
• Nippon Ladyfern
• Painted Ladyfern
• Ri Ben Jian Zhu [Chinese]
• Silver Fern
• Silvery Painted Fern
• Urohagoshida [Japanese]

Athyrium niponicum, Basel, Switzerland. Manu Schwendener.

Distribution: East Asia

• Asia, East: China (China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia), Japan, Korea
• Asia, South: India (Assam)
• Asia, Southeast: Myanmar, Vietnam
• Asia, East: Taiwan

Physical Description
A deciduous fern with fronds of variable length, generally between 30-75cm but sometimes over 1m. 

Compiler Notes

• Retained primarily for name and distribution.
• "Ghost fern" is worth exploiting.

Image Refs

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_niponicum#/media/File:Athyrium_niponicum_(Unsplash).jpg )

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Species: Athyrium yokoscense
Names: 

• Asian Common Ladyfern
• Hebi No Negoza [Japanese]
• Hebinone-Goza [Japanese]
• Japanese Climbing Fern
• Japanese Ladder Fern
• Ladder Fern
• Nioi Shida [Japanese]
• Yokosuka Fern
• Yokosuka Ladyfern
• Yokosuka-Shida [Japanese]

Athyrium yokoscense, Oleg Kosterin.

Distribution:

• Asia, East: China (China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Manchuria), Japan, Korea
• Asia, Northern: Russia (Kuril Is., Primorye)

Physical Description
This plant grows no more than 20cm (7.9in) high. They prefer shady spots with moist soils heavy with clay but will grow in plains with sufficient metal content.
A hardy fern that thrives around mines and soils contaminated with heavy metals, including zinc, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and copper, often well past thresholds that would kill other plants. It even grows on slag heaps.

Culture
This fern’s attraction to toxic metals has been recognized for centuries and was sought out when prospecting for these metals.

Poison
This plant has no known medicinal properties, but it’s definitely loaded with toxic metals.

Compiler Notes

• Thrives in heavy-metal contaminated soils. Perhaps it’s an indicator of corrupting magic? This would play well with female ferns’ associations with sorcery and mischief.

Image Refs

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_yokoscense#/media/File:Athyrium_yokoscense_101476025.jpg )

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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

• Adder's Tongue and Moonwort
• Bracken
• Horsetail Fern
• Maidenhair Fern and Brake
• Ostrich Fern
• Royal Fern
• Wood Fern

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Sources:

-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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyriaceae )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_distentifolium )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_filix-femina )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_flexile )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_niponicum )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_yokoscense )

Name assistance provided by Claude 3.5 Sonnet.