Can Tuberous Sword Fern (Shi Huang Pi) Be Eaten? Benefits, Effects and Care Methods

Tuberous sword fern, leaves tufted, dark brown, slightly glossy, leaf blade linear-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, once pinnate, lanceolate, leaf margin with sparse shallow obtuse serrations. So can Tuberous Sword Fern (Shi Huang Pi) be eaten? What are the benefits and effects of Tuberous Sword Fern? How do you care for Tuberous Sword Fern?

1. Can Tuberous Sword Fern (Shi Huang Pi) be eaten

Yes, it can be eaten. Tuberous sword fern is also called centipede fern, round fern, comb fern, and Shi Huang Pi, and is native to tropical and subtropical regions. It often grows on the ground and epiphytically in rock crevices and on tree trunks under streamside forests. It prefers warm, humid and semi-shady environments. Tuberous sword fern is an ornamental fern widely used both in China and abroad. Besides garden applications, Tuberous sword fern is also a traditional Chinese medicinal herb and can be eaten.

The fruit of Tuberous sword fern can also be eaten; the edible part is the tuber, which can be eaten raw or cooked. Its taste is mild with no obvious aroma, and eating it when thirsty can help replenish water.

2. What are the benefits and effects of Tuberous Sword Fern

1. Rich in nutrients

It is the leaf or whole plant of Tuberous sword fern, a plant of the family Davalliaceae. The tuberous roots contain fern-9(11)-ene, β-sitosterol, diploptene, β-sitosterol-β-D-glucoside, β-sitosterol palmitate and cyclolaudenol; the aerial parts contain sequoyitol. The whole plant also contains 24-ethylcholesterol, 24-methylcholesterol, 24-ethylcholesta-5,22-dienol and cholesterol, as well as trace amounts of 24-methylcholesta-5,22-dienol.

2. Benefits and effects

(1) Clears heat, drains dampness, reduces swelling, and removes toxins. Treats jaundice, strangury with turbid urine, painful urination, dysentery, hernia, acute mastitis, scrofula, scalds, and cuts. Internal use: decoct in water, 2 to 5 qian (1 to 2 liang if fresh). External use: pound and apply.

(2) "Guizhou Folk Medicines": Clears heat. Treats cuts, vomiting blood, strangury with turbid urine, and infertility.

(3) "Sichuan Records of Chinese Medicines": Treats acute mastitis and postpartum breast swelling.

(4) "Quanzhou Materia Medica": Clears heat and removes toxins, promotes urination. Treats damp-heat jaundice, difficult urination, regurgitation with dysphagia, and hernia.

(5) "Guangxi New Selection of Practical Chinese Herbal Medicines": Treats cough due to lung heat, centipede bites, scalds and burns, infantile malnutrition, and lymphatic tuberculosis.

3. Clinical applications

(1) To treat strangury with turbid urine, dribbling urination and unbearable pain: centipede fern (dried) 5 qian, 21 fir tree tips, 5 qian of common selfheal fruit-spike, and 4 qian of wild radish greens. Simmer in water and take with white sugar. ("Guizhou Folk Medicines").

(2) To treat cuts: pound the tender leaves of centipede fern and apply. ("Guizhou Folk Medicines").

(3) To treat breast swelling and pain: pound the tender stems and leaves of Tuberous sword fern into a paste and apply. ("Sichuan Records of Chinese Medicines").

(4) To treat damp-heat jaundice: dried whole plant of round fern 5 qian to 1 liang. Decoct in water and take.

(5) To treat regurgitation with dysphagia: dried whole plant of round fern ground into powder, 3 qian. Take three times daily, washed down with wine.

(6) To treat chronic dysentery: fresh leaves of round fern 3 liang. Pound, mix evenly with rice washing water, and squeeze out the juice. (Formulas 4 and below are from "Fujian Chinese Herbal Medicines").

3. How to care for Tuberous Sword Fern

Tuberous sword fern is an ornamental fern widely used both in China and abroad. It is easy to cultivate and grows robustly, and is widely used for open-field cultivation and indoor potted foliage display. It is especially interesting when grown as a hanging basket. Tuberous sword fern is also a major cut-foliage material. The tubers contain starch, and are used medicinally to treat colds, cough, enteritis and diarrhea; the whole plant treats five types of strangury with turbid urine, flooding and leukorrhea, and other conditions.

Many cultivated species of the genus Nephrolepis are among the most widely used ferns in the world. China has 5 species, distributed across the vast region south of the Yangtze River. They grow under streamside forests, in rock crevices, or epiphytically on tree trunks, and often form patches in the wild. The main ornamental species include: the tall sword fern, from which hundreds of cultivars have been bred; the first mutant discovered in 1870 was the famous Boston fern. These cultivars are extremely suitable for potted and hanging cultivation and are ideal materials for indoor decoration, popular all over the world, but most species are sterile and must be propagated vegetatively; and the long-leaf sword fern, a large fern, terrestrial or epiphytic, with very strong growth vigor.

Tuberous sword fern prefers bright indirect light and can be placed near an indoor north-facing window. Its suitable growth temperature is 15°C to 21°C at night. 24°C to 26°C during the day. Tuberous sword fern is fairly drought-tolerant, but during the growing season it needs sufficient water and must keep the air humid; a humidity of 506f｝＂60bf｝ is sufficient. Tuberous sword fern is suitable for loose, breathable neutral or slightly acidic soil. The potting mix can be made from 1 part leaf mold, 1 part plain sand and 2 parts vermiculite. During vigorous growth, 1 to 2 applications of liquid fertilizer should be given each month. Tuberous sword fern grows very quickly, and the root system will soon fill the pot, so it must be repotted every year. The most common way to propagate Tuberous sword fern is by division in spring together with repotting. Tuberous sword fern has many horizontally creeping stolons; pressing them with a clod of soil or fixing them to the soil surface with wire hooks will produce small plantlets, which can be separated from the mother plant and planted once they reach a certain size. The spherical tubers of Tuberous sword fern can also develop into small plantlets. When cultivated in the ground, Tuberous sword fern can quickly establish natural colonies through the growth of stolons. Spore propagation is also a widely used method.

4. How to select Tuberous Sword Fern

The tuberous stem is spherical or flat-round, about 2cm in diameter; the surface is densely covered with yellow-brown woolly scales, and round scars left after the scales fall off from the rhizome are visible; after removing the scales the surface appears bright yellow, with obvious irregular wrinkles; the texture is hard. Leaves tufted; petiole slightly twisted, 6-9cm long, with bright brown scales on the lower part; rachis brown-yellow, leaf blade often shrunken, after flattening linear-lanceolate, 30-60cm long, 3-5cm wide, once pinnately divided; pinnae sessile, lanceolate, about 2cm long, about 6mm wide, margin with sparse shallow obtuse teeth; the lateral veins on both sides each have 1 row of sori at the tip. Slight odor, bitter taste.

5. How to store Tuberous Sword Fern

It can be placed in a cool, ventilated place, in a dry location.