The language of ferns

Ormbunksväxter

Ormbunkar, fräken och lummer kallas gemensamt för kärlkryptogamer. De är gröna av klorofyll och jämfört med övriga kryptogamer högt organiserade i rot, stam och blad. Hos kärlkryptogamerna finns en generationsväxling, sporofyten är den välutvecklade generationen, "ormbunksplantan". Sporerna, de små encelliga förökningskropparna, sitter i sporgömmen på bladens undersidor, ibland på särskilda, ombildade blad eller i speciella ax. Det finns 65 arter i Sverige, några är vitt spridda, andra är stora sällsyntheter och fridlysta. Stensöta, örnbräken och träjon är välkända och allmänna, medan dvärglåsbräken, hjorttunga, jättefräken och cypresslummer är inskränkta till några få lokaler och försvinnande. Den vintergröna mattlummern har av gammalt använts för juldekoration. Stensöta, träjon och mattlummer är gamla medicinalväxter; namnet "ormbunke" förklaras av, att jordstammen av träjon använts som medel mot inälvsmask ("orm" innefattar mask och diverse kryp). 

Ferns and their allies

Ferns, horsetails and clubmosses are collectively known as vascular cryptogams [2]. They are green plants containing chlorophyll and in contrast to other cryptogams they are highly organized into root, stem and leaves. In vascular cryptogams there is an alternation of generations. The sporophyte is the well developed generation, the "fern plant". The spores, the small one-celled reproductive bodies, are located in sporangia on the undersides of the leaves, sometimes on specially adapted leaves or in special spikes. There are 65 species in Sweden: some are widespread, while others are great rarities and are protected. Polypody, Bracken [8] and Male Fern [5] are well known and common, while Least Moonwort [9], Hart's-tongue Fern [6], Great Horsetail [7] and Blue Ground-cedar [3] are restricted to a few sites and are disappearing. Stag's-horn Clubmoss, being green in winter, has long been used as Christmas decoration. Polypody, Male Fern and Stag's-horn Clubmoss are old medicinal plants. The explanation of the name ormbunke (fern [1]) is that the rhizome of Male Fern was used as a remedy for intestinal worms (the meaning of orm includes worms and various insects). 

[from Ut i naturen [4] (1995), text by Ingvar Nordin. This is a popular pocket-sized handbook containing descriptions and illustrations of 600 common Swedish plants and animals.]

1. So the Swedish name for fern (ormbunke). Orm generally means "snake" (e.g. huggorm, viper) but is cognate with English worm. As Nordin says, it can also refer to worms and some insects. SAOB casts doubt on whether the name really derives from Male Fern's use as a remedy against intestinal worms or whether it preceded it. Bunke is an old plant word that refers to the kind of tough growth that is unpalatable to grazing animals. I can't think of a good equivalent in English but maybe something like "snake-fibre" would give a general impression. 

2. kärlkryptogamer (vascular cryptogams).  Kärl means "vessel", for example blodkärl, blood-vessel. Like the English word vessel, it can also mean a container for liquid such as a jug or gravy-boat. 

Diphasiastrum tristachyum (Blue Ground-cedar)

[Image source: illustration from Hans Martin Jahns, Farne, Moose, Flechten Mittel-. Nord- und Westeuropas (1980).]

3. cypresslummer (literally "cypress clubmoss"). This is Diphasiastrum tristachyum, a clubmoss of dry conifer woods in central Europe. It doesn't occur in the British Isles and there is no vernacular name for it, but it does occur in eastern North America and I've borrowed one of its American names (Blue Ground-cedar). I don't know where this Swedish rarity occurs, but I imagine in the south. (I used to find out these things from the invaluable website Den virtuella floran, but it has now been frustratingly offline for about six months. Apparently for redevelopment, but that doesn't make any sense: you don't need to withdraw a live service to redevelop it.)

4. naturen . In Swedish, nature is given a definite article: "the nature". Thus the book title literally means Out in the nature. I've often wondered if it makes a difference. 

5. träjon (Male Fern, Dryopteris filix-mas). SAOB speculates that the name arose from someone (Linnaeus?) misreading their own note of the name "bräjon" i.e. "bräjken" (bräken as spoken in a Småland accent). At any rate the name träjon has no written history before Linnaeus used it in 1745. 

(When I looked this up on the SAOB website, on 14 March 2022, the Word of the Day happened to be TRÄJON, which freaked me out.)

A preparation from the rhizomes of Male Fern is indeed a taeniacide (kills tapeworms), though a somewhat dangerous one to the host, and safer ones are used today. 

6. hjorttunga (Hart's-tongue Fern, Phyllitis scolopendrium aka Asplenium scolopendrium). According to C.A.M Lindman, it is recorded in Sweden only from two sites in Halland, also Gotland and its small outliers the Karl Islands (Karlsöarna). It likes a wetter climate than Sweden can provide. Here in the south-west of England it's the commonest fern. 

7. jättefräken (Great Horsetail, Equisetum telmateia). Recorded from just three sites in Skåne. 

8. örnbräken (Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum). Örn means eagle (cf. the Latin name). In Swedish bräken is a general term for fern, and is a suffix in the names of various fern species (e.g Moonwort in the next note). Bracken is common up as far as central Norrland, but I never saw it in Jämtland.

9. dvärglåsbräken (Least Moonwort aka Little Grapefern, Botrychium simplex). A red-listed species throughout Europe. It's recorded at around ten sites in southern and central Sweden and is becoming even rarer. You have to be on your toes to see it fully grown, for just a few days toward mid-June before it releases spores and quickly withers away (it depends on a mycorrhizal partner). Its sites are mostly coastal and contain some lime. Grazing is required to keep down taller vegetation.

 My information comes from this useful PDF:

https://svenskbotanik.se/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/dvrglsbrken_44.pdf

Literally the Swedish name means "dwarf-lock-fern". The much more common Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) is låsbräken or låsgräs. Another old name for this species is fjättergräs ("fetter-grass"). The explanation is evidently that given by Thomas Fuller in The Holy State, 1642: "They say of the herb Lunaria ceremoniously gathered at some set times, that laid upon any lock, it makes it flie open" (found in the OED entry for lunary).