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A Magical Symbol of Spring: Fiddleheads — A Botanical History
Emerging for a short window of time in the spring, fiddleheads are a wild edible and medicinal plant with a connection to legends of magic and the fairy realm. Typically a name for edible varieties of new fern shoots, “fiddleheads”, do not refer to a specific species of plant, but a stage of growth in ferns. The name originated in the 19th century, inspired from the shape of the fern shoots’ to the scroll-work found at the end of the neck of violins, sometimes also called .
Fiddleheads were also called , a term for a bishop’s staff meant to symbolize a shepherd’s crook. Most examples of croziers have a spiral design at the end of the staff, bearing a remarkably to the tightly coiled shape of fiddleheads.
While all ferns begin in this curled form, not every variety of fiddleheads are for human consumption. Common varieties of edible fiddleheads include cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), lady fern (Athyrium…
