Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

Family: Polypodiaceae | Edibility: Edible (1/5)

Polypodium glycyrrhiza is a FERN growing to 0.5 m (1ft 8in) by 0.5 m (1ft 8in). See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 7. The seeds ripen from November to March. Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil and can tolerate drought.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Roots/Tubers

Harvest Seasons: Late Summer, Fall, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

sweetly liquorice-flavoured but is thin and fibrous and virtually inedible. — Root - raw or cooked The root is sweetly liquorice-flavoured but is thin and fibrous and virtually inedible.; The root was commonly chewed for its very pleasant flavour by many native North American Indian tribes.; It was often used as an appetiser, especially for children who would not eat.; Apart from its used as a pleasantly flavoured chew, it was seen as a famine food and was only used when there was a shortage of better foods.

Habitat & North American Range

Rocks, mossy tree trunks, logs etc, below 600 metres in coniferous and mixed forests in California. Cliffs and rocky slopes along coasts, often epiphytic, on a variety of substrates. (Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9)