Synonyms: Sweet-fern, Sweetfern.
Sweet Fern is native to eastern North America. In Maryland, it is largely a plant of the mountains. It generally grows on acidic, nutrient-poor, sandy sites, and gets a nutritional boost in such low-nitrogen soils because its roots, like those of its relatives bayberry and wax myrtle, contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Few other plants that are not legumes are known to have this ability (the alders do). (J. Hill, MNPS)
With its long, narrow, wavy-margined leaves, Sweet Fern looks more like a fern than a flowering plant. But it produces flowers, and they are in catkins. The male catkins are cone-like structures, often in the axils of leaves. The female catkins are small, round structures, which are persistent so that the inflorescence becomes bur-like at maturity (Weakley, et al., 2012).
Host plant for various species of moth including Pawpaw Sphinx Moth, Wavy-lined Emerald Moth, Io Moth, and Fruit-tree Leafroller Moth (Database of World's Lepidopteran Host Plants).
There are 48 records in the project database.
| GA | AL | WA | FR | CL | MO | HO | BA | BC | HA | CE | PG | AA | CV | CH | SM | KE | QA | CN | TA | DO | WI | SO | WO |
