Qaataq, qaataqutaq
Athyrium filix-femina (L.) Roth
Spreading Wood Fern
Qaataq, qaataqutaq
Dryopteris expansa (C. Presl) Fraser-Jenk. & Jermy = Dryopteris dilatata (Hoffm.) A. Gray
Plant
Two large, similar-appearing species of ferns grow in Kodiak’s meadows and moist woods. In spring, when the ground thaws, curled, ball-shaped fronds or “fiddleheads” appear from the ferns’ rootstalks. The large, expanded fronds or “leaves” are composed of delicate leaflets, or leaf-like segments. One way to distinguish the two ferns is by the lowest pair of leaflets. On the spreading wood fern, they are larger and broader than its other leaflets above them and are triangular. On the lady fern, the largest leaflets are found in the middle of the frond and the lowest leaflets of the frond are not triangular.
Food: People boil and eat the fiddleheads of both ferns.
