Licorice Fern
Polypodium glycyrrhiza
A winter-green fern that often grows on mossy logs and bigleaf maple trunks, going summer-dormant. Its sweet, licorice-flavored rhizomes were chewed by Indigenous peoples.
- Family
- Polypodiaceae
- Type
- fern
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 0.5–1.5 ft
- Spacing
- 1–2 ft apart
- Light
- part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Landscape uses
- groundcover, container, erosion control, naturalizing
- Native states
- AK, AZ, CA, ID, OR, UT, WA
Related native plants
More Polypodium species
- Rock Polypody (Polypodium virginianum)
- California Polypody (Polypodium californicum)
- Leathery Polypody (Polypodium scouleri)