sweetfern

Photo: Fungus Guy — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 2 through 6

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Not a fruit crop — an aromatic shrub whose leaves make a herbal tea; it bears a small bur-like nutlet, not a fleshy edible fruit. Leaves for tea; nitrogen-fixing. Distinct from the related Myrica/Morella (yangmei), which has the edible fruit.

Hardiness

Zone 2–6

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Leaf, Nut

Ripens

Summer

Mature size

Low suckering deciduous shrub 0.6–1.5 m, spreading wider than tall

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

4.5–6.0 (acid; nitrogen-fixing)

Environment

Sandy acidic

Native range

Eastern North America, from Nova Scotia and Quebec south to Georgia and west to Minnesota — dry sandy barrens, pine woods, roadside banks and burnt-over ground, always on poor acid soil.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

4–5 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate — spreading sideways faster than upward

Spacing

120 cm (47 in) apart — about 1.4 m² (16 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

The plant's whole identity: narrow leaves 8–15 cm, deeply and regularly cut into rounded lobes on both sides so that they look exactly like a fern frond on a woody stem. Sweetly resinous when crushed, and the source of the tea.

Root system

Shallow, spreading and fibrous, carrying nitrogen-fixing actinorhizal nodules formed with Frankia bacteria rather than the rhizobia of the pea family — which is how these shrubs live on raw sand and acid peat where little else will. Suckers freely from those roots.

Fruit description

Not a fleshy fruit and not a food crop: a small bur-like head of hard shiny nutlets, edible but tiny and rarely bothered with. The leaves are what the plant is grown for — dried for a warm, resinous herbal tea.

Propagation

Root cuttings taken in late winter are the reliable method, and suckers lift readily. Seed is difficult and needs long stratification. It resents root disturbance once established, so plant it small and from a pot.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male + female

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.