Medicinal Monday... Coastal Woodfern

In the summer, many of us like to head to the beach. Many Native American communities that lived in the woodlands in the winter often made their way to the beach as the temperatures got warmer to look for a variety of seafood. If they lived on the West Coast of North America they might have come across Dryopteris arguta, a species of wood fern, commonly called Coastal Woodfern.

photo - John Rusk

About Coastal Woodfern

This vase-shaped evergreen fern has a ruffled lacy look to it with leathery leaflets that turn at an angle away from the stem. The fronds of this fern grow upright in clusters that are divided into toothed or bristled leaflets. Fruit dots are dark brown or black and appear on the underside of fronds that are fertile. Coastal Woodferns are native to the West Coast and grow as far north as British Columbia and south to Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona. They spread by rhizomes and grow in large colonies. They can be found in a variety of environments from mixed evergreen forests to rocky oak woodlands and shrublands.

photo: Kenraiz

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

In the spring Indigenous people of the West Coast would dig up the rhizomes of these plants and eat them. It has been documented that the fronds were used to clean eels and other meats. The fronds were also used to cover food, to keep the flies off of it. Another common use was to make an infusion of the fronds and use it as a hair wash. Some communities used the spores to make designs on their hands. The most common medicinal use of this fern was to make a decoction of the roots to induce vomiting.

Did You Know...

Common names for this plant include California Wood Fern, Coastal Woodfern, and Wood Fern.

The name of this fern, Dryopteris is from the Greek word for oak and fern which refers to the fact that these ferns are often found growing amid oak trees.

The name arguta is from Latin and means sharp-toothed which refers to the sharp-toothed leaves of this plant.