Licorice Fern

Polypodium glycyrrhiza

General:  Small to medium sized, evergreen, to 70 cm tall (but often much smaller), from a creeping, reddish-brown, scaly, licorice-flavoured rhizome; often growing on deciduous tree trunks and branches.

Leaves: Stipes straw-coloured, smooth, usually shorter than the blades; blades to 50 cm long, once-pinnate; leaflets usually longer than 3 cm, with pointed tips and finely scalloped or toothed margins.

Sori:  Oval to round, 1 row on either side of the man vein, without an indusium.

Ecology: On wet, mossy ground, logs and rocks or (commonly) epiphytic on tree trunks and branches, often bigleaf maple; at low elevations.

Notes:  The sweet, licorice-flavored rhizomes were chewed for the flavor by coastal First Nation peoples.  They were also an important medicine for colds and sore throats.

Source: Pojar's Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 1994