Sweet root

When the rains begin and the sun goes south, it's time to tramp through the soggy woods looking for mushrooms and mosses. And licorice ferns; the wetter and cooler, the better, the ferns say.

Licorice ferns, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, on mossy fallen tree. A rainy day in September.

Usually, I see them high on a mossy big leaf maple, or in a dripping bed of moss on a cliff face. Sometimes, though, their trees come down, bearing the ferns with them. These were in the hills above the Upper Campbell Lake, on the Berry Creek logging road.

The genus name, Polypodium, means "many feet", referring to its habit of growing out from many locations along a rhizome under the moss. And glycyrrhiza, the species name, means "sweet root"; the rhizome is licorice-flavoured and sweet.