Diplazium pycnocarpon (Spreng.) Broun

Narrow-leaved spleenwort, glade fern

What the heck is a spleenwort? There’s an old belief, the doctrine of signatures, that plants whose shape resembles some part of the human body were meant to be used for medically treating that part. Nobody is certain when this concept originated, but in the early 1600s a shoemaker from Görlitz, Germany, one Jacob Böhme, had a vision along the same lines, and wrote a book about it. Although Böhme made no medically related claims about his beliefs, others interpreted the idea literally and began treating people.

In the case of spleenwort, the tiny sori (spore packets) on the bottoms of the leaves are shaped like spleens. “Wort” is an ancient word meaning “plant.” So spleenwort means “plant that has something on it that looks sort of like a spleen so it must be medicine for spleen problems.”

Identification: Plants are 2–3′ (60–91 cm) tall, with a circular clumps of 5-6 fronds. Sterile fronds, up to 2½′ (76 cm) long, have 20-40 pairs of alternate pinnae. They tend to arch. Fertile fronds are taller and narrower, with thinner pinnae. Sterile fronds appear first, in the spring.

Habitats: Moist open woods, moist meadows, swamps; in neutral or slightly alkaline soil.

Online References:

References:

Older scientific or horticultural names

Diplazium pycnocarpon description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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