The fatal fern

Hi All

I stumbled across this article today, and found interesting, and worried, because I think we have a few brackens growing in the corners of the garden. I left them just to grow because they look like Ferns, but maybe I will need to taken them out.

By the way, what is the difference between Fern and Bracken?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/sep/09/research.science

 

Bracken is, I believe, a type of fern. Its just that it tends not be called such because ferns are generally considered 'good' while bracken is the 'evil' fern. Its only bad because it is such a pernicious weed. It's hard to get rid of, it spreads rapidly, and it swamps out other plants.

Bracken is horrible stuff. The spores (all ferns are primitive plants, with an anatomy that pre-dates the evolution of flowers, so they don't produce seeds, they produce spores) are so incredibly fine that they can slip into some tiny places such as deep within the soft tissue of the lining of our lungs, and they are carcinogenic, as they can damage DNA.

That, and its invasive nature, are not bracken's only evils (if only). At the end of the growing season it dies off and goes brown and brittle. If you snap the dried stems, they are razor sharp, and cut yourself on them and you'll not only have the pain of the actual cut (like a paper cut but 10 times worse), but for some reason the cut seems to take a long time to heal and often becomes infected and nastily sore and inflamed.

So bracken is horrible stuff, without doubt.

But is it worthy of its own scary news article? Well, lets put it into perspective. Plenty of people live in the countryside, exposed to bracken and its spores in large measures on a daily basis, and yet country folk statistically do better life wise than city dwellers. My grandad, who was nearly 91 when he died (and was still as fit as a fiddle into his 80s) often spoke fondly of memories of making bracken beds on army exercises.

But how does bracken compare then to other plants that we might find in abundance? Well, blackthorn springs to mind. It is a lovely small tree, with razor sharps thorns that often carry a fungi that many of us are very allergic too. Both I and my dad have separately had urgent medical treatment following seemingly trivial blackthorn injuries. Imagine your whole body suddenly itching so bad you nearly tear your skin off, heart racing, nausea, dizziness, erratic pulse and respiration. Or euphorbia, a common weed, with many varieties cultivated as garden ornamentals, despite the fact that for many, the sap will burn your skin, and had the potential to cause permanent blindness. Foxglove, another native often kept as an ornamental, yet its one of the most deadly poisonous plants we have ( @Zigs has a good story about that). Among our many and varied much loved and lesser loved native and imported very common plants, we have ones that will burn your skin, kill you of anaphylactic shock, blind you, destroy your liver, shut down your central nervous system, make you high as a kite, stop the old ticker, and/or make you believe you're superman and jump out of a window.

All these hazards, yet people seem to live. I suspect the article you read in the paper was only produced because it was another non-news day.

 

Best not to forget that Apple Pips contain Cyanide and are therefore poisonous ... I worried more (probably rightly so!) that the things would germinate in my tummy as a kid

 

Yep, slow news day.

I pulled up our local news a few months ago for running a story on Giant Hogweed when the plant they were showing was normal Hogweed. They ignored my message on their Facebook and ran the same story on the 6.30 news.

Incidentally, the sap from bracken will kill a slug stone dead if it drinks it.

 

We have 2x blackthorn trees too, and a few days ago when after I pruned them a bit, cleared all the branches on the ground. But one small twig was hidden under the grass, and a few days later when I was walking about on the path, I must have stepped on it without knowing. Its thorn of that twig penetrated into the bottom of my shoes. I felt a sting and burn on my feet, and looked at the shoes, the throne of the twig was firmly embedded in the bottom of the shoes making a hole. The embedded thorn was just 1 mm proud of the bottom of the sole in the shoe. I was lucky not to have been punctured on the feet. The shoe had thick sole and it is heavy duty safety boots type shoes, and if it were normal shoes, my feet would have had no chance.

Thank you clueless and all for your great replies. Very helpful and informative.

 

The spikes of the blackthorn are very nasty. Quite a few years ago one winter I slipped while climbing down from a blackthorn and banged my elbow. That night I lay in bed and the elbow didn't feel right there was something in there poked around and found a large blackthorn spike that required a pair of pliers for removal. Fortunately no infection or other ill effects.
Blackthorn does make a good hedge and the wood can be used for walking sticks and clubs as it is both hard and tough.
While young bracken shoots can be grazed by stock, however when older it is toxic causing symptoms similar to radiation sickness. It used be cut and used as winter bedding for stock in many areas.
Looking at my own garden most of the ornamentals are poisonous to a greater or lesser extent. Even in the vegetable plot there are plants where only parts are safe to eat potatoes, tomatoes, runner beans etc.
A few weeks ago, at work, I mentioned I had elderberries to pick and was asked how did I know they weren't deadly nightshade. My response that they were hanging on an elderberry bush was met with "well I wouldn't take the risk" from my colleague.

 

Ah yes, don't forget that elderberries are poisonous when raw and fresh too. I didn't find this out until just a few years ago. It certainly explains why I used to go dizzy and nauseas every time I ate some straight off the tree as a kid Heat quickly destroys the toxin though, which is why its fine to use them in wine and pies and other such nice things.

 

The easy way to get rid of bracken is to get a good pair of gloves and jus pull it up. No weedkiller really works by I cleared our garden of it by just pulling. Must wear gloves or you will cut your hands very badly.

 

Bracken is controlled here by cutting it down over a period of three years and it tends to give up on growth.

 

Book? Book! You wrote a book!? Tell me more, please

 

You've done a book? I didn't know that.

 

Excellent: well done to you!

So, have you lost the writing bug or just no longer have the time (although I'm fairly sure you didn't have the time in the first place )