What is the difference between monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern? Learn to tell these two wild mountain vegetables apart

When monkey-leg vegetable is mentioned, most people are probably not familiar with it, but when fiddlehead fern is mentioned, everyone surely knows it. Monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern look quite similar in appearance, so many people mistake them for the same thing. So what is the difference between monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern?

1. What is the difference between monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern?

The difference between monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern is that the stem of monkey-leg vegetable is hairy, and it generally grows on grassland by river ditches. It comes in two types, green and purple, mostly grows in the Changbai Mountains, and has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying and lowering blood pressure. The stem of fiddlehead fern has no hairs, is more commonly seen on mountain slopes, and usually only the tender leaves are eaten. It has diuretic and deworming effects, but it should not be eaten too much, as it can cause cancer.

2. Is it true that fiddlehead fern causes cancer?

It is true that fiddlehead fern causes cancer, because fiddlehead fern contains cancer-related substances including shikimic acid, ptaquiloside, flavanol compounds, quercetin, and some substances similar to quercetin. These substances are related to cancers of the digestive tract.

Of course, eating fiddlehead fern once or twice will not cause cancer immediately. This is related to the amount of carcinogenic substances ingested, but eating fiddlehead fern over the long term will harm health. If readers have often eaten it before, there is no need to panic, because in the process of preparing fiddlehead fern, we generally blanch it in water before eating. This treatment greatly reduces the content of ptaquiloside. However, this treatment only reduces it rather than eliminating it. If eaten over the long term, ptaquiloside will still accumulate in the body. Therefore, although fiddlehead fern is beautiful, it is best to stay away from it.

Overall, although monkey-leg vegetable and fiddlehead fern are both ferns, there are still certain differences between them in appearance, effects and geographical distribution, and they are quite easy to tell apart.