Sweet Fern

Picking my favourite PEI plant would be a near-impossible task, but picking the most aromatic one is easy: that honour goes to Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina, Photo 1).

Photo 1: Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina) on PEI.

‘Sweet Fern’ is one of the most misleading plant names we have: it is neither sweet nor a fern. This species is closely related to Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica) and has a similar – though much stronger – scent that I often smell before I even see the plant. Drive past Sweet Fern habitat with your car windows down on a warm summer day and you’ll understand what I mean.

On PEI, Sweet Fern is most common in a band along the north shore from Tracadie Bay eastwards, and I’ve always wondered if this is a legacy of two major fires that burned this area during land clearing in the mid-1700s. Sweet Fern responds well to fire, quickly colonizing burned sites and forming dense patches that can exclude other vegetation. This part of the Island has the sandy, acidic soil that Sweet Fern prefers, but so do other parts of Kings County where I don’t see it.  It isn’t a stretch to imagine today’s plants in the “Sweet Fern belt” as direct descendants of those that helped revegetate this part of PEI nearly three centuries ago.

Photo 2: The edible female flowers of Sweet Fern. I recently forgot some in my car and learned that they also make fantastic air fresheners!

Sweet Fern has many traditional uses, including being burned as ceremonial incense and as an insect repellant, rubbed on the skin to treat sores and inflammation, and used to line foraging baskets to deter pests and prevent food from spoiling. Modern research has isolated more than 50 biochemical components from Sweet Fern, including some with antimicrobial activity and others that have shown toxicity against human lung and colon cancer cells.

Photo 3: The crunchy fruit found inside Sweet Fern's female flowers. These are the nutlets from just one flower.

While Sweet Fern makes a nice aromatic addition to incense or potpourri, it’s also edible. The most common culinary use is to make tea from the leaves, although I prefer the edible flowers and fruit.   The female flowers (Photo 2) are spiky balls that look like burrs but are soft rather than prickly.  The entire flower can be eaten and has a pleasant woodsy-herbal flavour consistent with how the plant smells. It also has a pleasant crunch, thanks to the fruit (seeds, aka nutlets) inside (Photo 3).  

The seeds are milder tasting than the full flower, though separating them is tedious work. If you have the patience, you can dig them out to use raw or roasted, whole or ground. The flavour works well in both sweet and savoury dishes, but a little goes a long way!  I usually use the full flowers sprinkled on salads or chopped and added to cookies and muffins, but this year I’m going to try infusing some in my Elderberry brandy. I’m optimistic the flavours will work well.

Sweet Fern is a beautiful native, aromatic, medicinal, and edible part of PEI untamed!