Here you can see the sterile leaves of M. struthiopteris, a species that occurs in North America, Europe, and Asia. While taking these pictures, I noticed that the leaves of plants cultivated in Sweden are somewhat hairier than the North American ones. For the sake of comparison, I am including a photo of a North American plant (fiddleheads only) cultivated at the NYBG. The ostrich fern is a very popular ornamental plant in cool-temperate regions. The fiddleheads are also used as a cooked vegetable, and are considered a delicacy mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America (see below, a delicious treat offered by John and Carol Mickel).
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- Matteucia – Ready to eat, USA
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- Matteucia – fiddleheads, USA (NYBG)
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- Matteucia – sterile leaves gradually tapered toward the base
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- Matteucia – habit, Sweden
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- Matteucia – fiddlehead, Sweden
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- Matteucia – fiddlehead, Sweden
Nice observation. In our area, we have glabrous plants and plants with very fine hairs like your plant from Sweden. The hairs are shed when the leaf matures. This variation was mentioned in Dan Koeneman’s paper in the American Fern Journal. http://www.uvm.edu/~plantbio/barringtonpapers/barringtonMatt2011.pdf