This fern is a dynamic nutrient accumulator with deep roots that mine nutrients from the subsoil and concentrate those nutrients in its leaves. When the leaves die back, all those nutrients are now available in the upper soil layers for other plants to utilize. It accumulates Potassium, Phosphorus, Manganese, Iron, Copper, Cobalt, and Zinc.

This plant is widely known in permaculture circles where it is called by the incorrect name Pteridium aquifolium.

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Native in the Pacific Northwest, found in meadows, roadsides, and forest understory. The rhizomes are deep which allows it to survive forest fires. This fern is found worldwide, in all continents except Antarctica and in all environments except deserts. Fossil records date it more than 55 million years old.

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This species is most easily recognized by its tall, erect petioles (leaf stems) and its large triangular fronds. It is usually about 3 to 4 feet high, but can range from 1 to 5 feet. It is found over much of the world, and in North America it ranges from southeast Alaska, through most of Canada, into all of the states of the USA, except Nebraska. This species spreads very aggressively with one clump able to send out a rhizome to 6 feet beyond itself. I don't recommend it for any kind of regular landscape, and I have never seen it sold by any kind of nursery. I took two photos of a colony in southeast Pennsylvania that must have been present as wild before the property was made into a large yard with a house in the 1950's, and the ferns were poking through a Japanese Pachysandra groundcover. It is a pretty woodland plant in the wild that I've also seen in northern Minnesota.

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