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Licorice fern
Photo by Allen Philips 2-11-2001; 5-26-2003; 2-11-2001
Licorice fern Polypodium glycyrrhiza
Licorice ferns are common on Bainbridge Island and at the Tree Garden, but typically reside in a narrow ecological nitch, moss covered bigleaf maple bark. So wereas we might have over 100 sword ferns located about, there are perhaps 10-15 patches of licorice ferns.
They are deciduous, and reminds one of a single frond of a sword fern. The fronds grow up to 20" long but the roots travel for feet under the moss on the trunk of a maple and a series of fronds will emerge. They are well adjusted to the weather patterns here at the tree garden, growing quickly in the spring, dying back totally in the dry locations at the end of summer, only to emerge again in the early fall after the first rains.
The roots are bright yellow, and are bitter with an after taste of licorice. Besides maple bark, they are observed to grow on mossy alder and very mossy doouglas fir trunks if moist enough. In the Tree Garden they also directly in the soil on bluffs that although dry, get a lot of filtered light. In that location they die back sooner than the other patches. Maidenhair fern grow on similar bluffs, but the bluffs have water seeps, since the maidenhair don't seem to tolerate dryness as well.
updated 9/2007 by Allen Philips