Interesting Notes

The common name of this plant is in reference to the cinnamon colored fibers found near the frond bases. Osmunda fiber used in the potting of orchids comes from the roots of these ferns. Kemper Center for Home Gardening

Common name from color of hairs on rachis, and fall coloration of fronds; genus name after the Nordic God Thor, also called Osmunder; native to eastern U.S. with fiddleheads often collected in spring in the North and boiled like asparagus for eating; more vigorous in the North, not tolerating summer heat of the South; related to the other popular Royal Fern, O. regalis and Interrupted Fern, O. claytonia. UVM

Cinnamon fern grows like a big shuttlecock from the ascending tips of thick, creeping semiwoody rhizomes. Most ferns carry their reproductive spores on the undersides of the fronds; cinnamon fern (and other species of Osmunda) have separate and distinctive fertile fronds in addition to the typical sterile fronds. The large sterile fronds grow 3-5' tall. They are pinnately compound with each of the 30-50 pinnae divided again. At first the fiddleheads are cinnamon brown and covered with a dense wooly pubescence, but the fronds turn pale green as they unfold and mature. Later in the year, they turn golden brown before dying back in winter. The fertile fronds, which lack leafy pinnae, emerge in spring from the center of the plant, standing a little above the vaselike cluster of sterile fronds. They are green at first but soon turn rich cinnamon brown. Fertile fronds are covered with abundant masses of brownish sporangia. The fertile fronds die back after shedding their spores in late summer. The roots of cinnamon fern are black, wiry and fibrous, eventually forming a tough, thick mat. Cinnamon fern is readily identified by the distinctive cinnamon colored non-leaflike fertile fronds, or if fertile fronds are absent, by the presence of a conspicuous tuft of orange hairs on the underside of each pinna at its base.

American Indians used a decoction of cinnamon fern to treat rheumatism,headache, chills, colds and snakebite. Frond tips were eaten both raw and cooked. The fiddleheads are edible, and said to taste like a blend of broccoli, asparagus and artichoke.

The Florida Department of Agriculture lists cinnamon fern as a "Commercially Exploited Species," which means that it cannot be removed from the wild for commercial purposes without a permit. Cinnamon fern is, however, legally available from many of the native plant nurseries. floridata.com

Growing and Maintenance Tips

O. cinnamomea is native to stream banks, swamps and on bog margins from Newfoundland to Minnesota south to New Mexico and Florida. Prefers moist, rich, acidic soils in full to patial shade. Needs consistent moisture and can take more sun with regular watering. Propagate by division every few years in the spring.