Everything about Sweetfern totally explained
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 isn't a
fern.
It is a
deciduous shrub, growing to 1.5 m tall. The
leaves of the plant are linear to lanceolate, 3-15 cm long and 0.3-3 cm broad, with a modified dentate, pinnately lobed margin; they give off a sweet odor, especially when crushed. The
flowers are imperfect, meaning that no one flower has both gender parts. It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with
pine stands.
Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the
larvae of some
Lepidoptera species, including
Bucculatrix paroptila,
Grey Pug,
Setaceous Hebrew Character,
Io moth, and several
Coleophora case-bearers:
C. comptoniella,
C. peregrinaevorella (which feeds exclusively on
Comptonia),
C. persimplexella,
C. pruniella and
C. serratella.
Several
fossil species have been discovered, showing that the genus once had a much wider distribution throughout the
Northern Hemisphere.
Sweet fern can produce a mild
high when smoked, hence its drug nickname,
redneck reefer.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sweetfern'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://comptonia.totallyexplained.com">Comptonia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
