Notes from a plant nerd: Happy Holly Days
There are many different plants that Appalachian mountainfolk have used for centuries in their decorations and celebrations on or around the winter solstice.
Bracken among the world’s most common plants
“Here and elsewhere, bracken is such an aggressive plant that one wonders why it has not taken over the world.”
— R.C. Moran, A Natural History of Ferns (2004)
Bracken fern is said to be one of the five most common plants in the world. Standing up to five feet high, it is the coarse leathery fern you have no doubt encountered in disturbed areas, thickets, and dry open woodlands.
Graceful ferns a fiddling
“Marvel for a moment at the fern fiddlehead. It stands like a watch spring coiled and ready to unwind … What many do not realize, however, is that the fiddlehead has some unusual mathematical properties. It represents one of two kinds of spirals commonly found in nature, and this spiral results from a particular kind of growth.”
— Robin C. Moran, A Natural History of Ferns (2004)
