Description

Despite the name, this is not a fern, but a super cute mound-shaped shrub with aromatic foliage that resembles fern foliage (thus the common name). Multiple stems with airy, loose, spreading branches invite you to run your fingers through the shrub, and the resulting fragrance will make you glad you did! The edges of the long, narrow, olive-green leaves edges are slightly rolled back. Insignificant, yellowish green flowers give way to a small nut enclosed in a bur-like husk.

Sweet fern is an adaptable plant that tolerates wet conditions, wind, drought and a wide range of soils (prefers sandy, acidic loams; tolerates poor soils but not clay). Sweet fern fixes its own nitrogen through a close partnership with bacteria in the soil which allows it to grow in barren, nutrient-poor soils.

Comptonia does not like to be transplanted, so site carefully. Once established, it can spread rapidly to form colonies by suckering. Good for erosion control and hillside plantings.

Attracts birds, butterflies. Larval host to grey hairstreak butterfly. Wildlife uses th