bracken
- Also called:
- brake or bracken fern
bracken, (Pteridium aquilinum), widely distributed fern (family Dennstaedtiaceae), found throughout the world in temperate and tropical regions. The fronds are used as thatching for houses and as fodder and are cooked as vegetables or in soups in some parts of Asia. However, the leaves of bracken contain an array of poisonous and carcinogenic compounds and may be harmful to consume.
Bracken is perhaps the most broadly distributed of all fern species and among the most wide-ranging of all vascular plants. The plant is usually separated into 5–12 subspecies, though some botanists classify most or all of these varieties as separate species, a topic that is controversial among taxonomists. Several subspecies occur in North America and Great Britain. Hairy, or western, bracken (subspecies P. aquilinum pubescens) grows from Alaska to Mexico and east to Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas. Eastern bracken (subspecies P. aquilinum latiusculum), growing also in northern Europe and eastern Asia, occurs from Newfoundland to Minnesota and south to Oklahoma and Tennessee. Tailed bracken (subspecies P. aquilinum pseudocaudatum) grows from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Missouri and Texas. The subspecies P. aquilinum caudatum, a West Indian plant, grows in southern Florida, and the subspecies P. aquilinum aquilinum is common in Great Britain.
Bracken has a perennial black rootstock that creeps extensively underground and at intervals sends up fronds. Individual rhizomes have been documented as spreading up to about 400 metres (1,300 feet) in length, making bracken one of the largest plants in the world. The fronds may reach a height of 5 metres (16 feet) or more and, despite dying in autumn, often remain standing throughout the winter, affording cover for game in some regions. The minute spores are incredibly lightweight, which has enabled the plant to spread nearly worldwide.
Bracken is an aggressive colonizer of open ground and readily invades pastures and fields. Once established, the deep-set rhizomes are nearly impossible to eradicate. Because of its ability to render land unfit for livestock and its tendency to shade out other plant species (including some of conservation concern), bracken is considered to be among the world’s worst weeds and is listed as an invasive species in some places.