Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fagales > Myricaceae > Comptonia > Comptonia peregrina

Comptonia peregrina (sweet fern)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Comptonia is a monotypic genus (containing only Comptonia peregrina) in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. It is native to eastern North America, from southern Quebec south to the extreme north of Georgia, and west to Minnesota. The common name is sweetfern or sweet-fern, a confusing name as it is not a fern. Several fossil species, such as Comptonia colombiana have been described, showing that the genus once had a much wider distribution throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
View Wikipedia Record: Comptonia peregrina

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Screening - Summer [2]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  3 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Low
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Rhizomatous
Growth Period [2]  Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting
Root Depth [2]  14 inches (36 cm)
Scent [3]  The crushed leaves are very aromatic, their scent is most noticeable in the early morning and the evening. The scent increases when the plant is dried.
Seed Spread Rate [2]  None
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Seeds Per [2]  30000 / lb (66139 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  The leaves are used as a lining in baskets etc in order to preserve the fruit; The crushed leaves repel insects; They can be thrown onto a camp fire to keep mosquitoes away; The dried leaves have been burnt as an incense;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Height [3]  4.92 feet (1.5 m)
Width [3]  39 inches (1 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Mostly Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Comptonia peregrina

Protected Areas

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0