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Image: Wikimedia Commons (See link for license)
Bracken Fern
Pteridium aquilinum
ワラビ
A fern widely distributed across mountain fields throughout Japan. The young spring fiddleheads ('warabi') are a beloved edible wild plant and a quintessential mountain vegetable. Starch extracted from the rhizome is used to make warabi-mochi (bracken starch cakes).
Identification Points
- ✓Young fiddleheads tightly coiled, covered in white woolly hairs
- ✓Mature fronds large, tripinnately compound
- ✓Sori arranged continuously along the frond margins
Habitat
Mountain grasslands, forest edges, and clear-cut sites
Season
March–May (young shoots); summer–autumn (mature fronds)
3D Specimen Model
Kyushu University, Shikano Lab (CC0)
View on Sketchfab→Morphological TraitsAI-estimated, needs verification
Growth form
Herb
Leaf type
Compound
Habitat
Mountain
Phylogenetic Positionワラビ科 →
Phylogenetic Position
Vascular plants > Polypodiophyta > Polypodiopsida > Polypodiales > Dennstaedtiaceae
Divergence Era
Cretaceous (ca. 100 million years ago–)
Evolution Notes
Dennstaedtiaceae includes one of the most widely distributed fern species in the world. It forms large colonies through rhizome propagation and excels at pioneer colonization of disturbed habitats.
View on evolution timeline →Sources & References
AI-generated, needs verification