PNW Native
Ranges along western North America from Alaska to Southern California (Z)
Western sword fern is a large, evergreen fern with multiple erect stems growing up to 1.5 m / 5 ft. Stems originate from a woody rhizome and form a crownlike shrub. Leaves are unipennate, lancelike, pointed with sharp teeth, and have a slight lobe pointing downwards towards the scaly stipe. Sori are found halfway between the midvein of each leaf and the leaf margin, are large, and circular indusium are attached to the center of each sori. (PM)
Western sword fern is widely used by various animals, which is unsurprising given it is one of the most prolific ground coverings in PNW forests. In Washington and Oregon, elk widely eat fern, including western sword fern, during winter and spring. On the Olympic Peninsula and in the Oregon Coast ranges, western sword fern was a seasonally significant food source. Redwood sorrel/western sword fern ground cover habitats in the southern Coast Ranges of Oregon provide much of the diet of the elk who inhabit the region. Black-tailed deer also consume western sword fern as an important part of their diet. One review found 13% of black-tailed deer annual diet to be comprised of sword fern, and in western Washington, western sword fern was found in 27 out of 178 stomach samples. Mule deer in the Olympic National Forest heavily browsed on western sword fern in western hemlock/salal/ western sword fern and Pacific silver fir/ western sword fern/redwood sorrel habitats into late summer. Fecal analysis found mountain goats in Olympic National Park ate western sword fern, and black bears occasionally forage the fern as well. (Z)
Other animals, including birds and mammals, rely on western sword fern for food and habitat. In the Sitka spruce and western hemlock forests of the Olympic Peninsula and North Cascades, western hemlock is the dominant understorey plant of old growth forests used by the endangered Northern spotted owl. In second-growth Douglas-firs present widely across western Washington, western sword fern is still among the dominant understorey species. Pacific grouse use these forests as drumming sites. Mountain beavers from BC through California depend on western sword fern for cover and nutrients. At just seven weeks old, mountain beavers already incorporate western sword fern into their diets. In Western Oregon, the abundant presence of western sword fern was linked to larger mountain beaver populations, as sword fern is an important winter food. In Siuslaw National Forest, western sword fern was a choice food of the mountain beaver, and abundantly large beaver populations are present in moist western hemlock/Pacific rhododendron/ western sword fern stands. (Z)
Western sword fern grows abundantly in moist forests south of central Vancouver Island and from the western Cascades to the Pacific Ocean at low-middle elevations, where it is one of the most prolific ground coverings in the region. (PM)
Due to its abundance, western sword fern was widely used by indigenous people of the Northwest Coast. Sword fern leaves were used to line pits for pit cooking, as a covering for beds and floors, and as a layer between food in food storage boxes, drying racks, and baskets. The rhizomes of western sword fern as well as the large clump of leaves at the base of the stalk were steamed or roasted, peeled, and eaten as starvation fare by several tribes (Z) including the Makah, Squamish, Nuu-chah-nulth, Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Quileute, Sechelt, and S’Klallam (PM). Medicines were made from western sword fern rhizomes, eaten as a cure for diarrhea (Z) by the Nuu-chah-nulth (PM), young leaves eaten for tonsilitis or sore throat, boiled stem tea used for labor, and a boiled rhizome infusion used to ease sores and body pain. (Z) In numerous Coast Salish languages, sword fern is known as “pala-pala plant” due to a popular children’s game called pala-pala, where children would see how many leaflets they could rip off a sword fern in a single breath while saying “pala” for each leaf ripped off. The objective is to see which child can rip off the most leaflets in a single breath. (PM) The Makah play this game, which they call pila in their language. (DM)
The Quileute peel and bake sword fern rhizomes in a pit, then eat with fresh or dried salmon eggs. The Makah peel the rhizomes, place them on a pit on hot rocks, then cover with more sword fern leaves and sand, then build a hot fire atop the pit. The S’Klallam and Makah boil and eat the rhizomes. Sword fern is widely used in baking; the Cowlitz use it when roasting wapato, the Chehalis, Quileute, Cowlitz, and Quinault use sword fern during camas baking, the Makah use it while steaming shoots, and the Squaxin spread sword fern leaves on drying racks to prevent berries sticking. The Cowlitz and Quinault tie sword fern leaves together to make into mattresses. The Swinomish chew and swallow raw sword fern fiddleheads to treat sore throat and tonsilitis, the Quileute applies chewed leaves and salmonberry bark to treat skin ailments, the Duwamish use the rhizome medicinally, the Quinault boil roots and use as a dandruff-treating hair rinse and collect the sori and apply to burns, and Lummi women would chew leaves to swiften childbirth. (EG)
Harvesting for floral greens, one of the most stable and profitable non-timber forest industries in the Pacific Northwest, began in 1915 with salal and western sword fern. (Z) Sword fern is a prized frond used in funereal arrangements. (DM) Massive quantities of western sword fern, whose leaves keep very well once chopped, are distributed as far as Europe. Sword fern is also extensively used in the landscaping industry. (Z)
[1] Zouhar, Kris. 2015. Polystichum munitum, western swordfern. In: Fire Effects Information System,. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://www.fs.fed.us /database/feis/plants/fern/polmun/all.html
