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 | Polypody Other Names: Polypody of the Oak. Wall Fern. Brake Root. Rock Brake. Rock of Polypody. Oak Fern.
Botanical Name: Polypodiurn vulgare
Family: N.O. Filices |
Description: |
It has a creeping rhizome, which runs along the surface of the ground, or substance on which it grows, and is thick and woody, covered with yellowish scales. At intervals it throws up fronds, from a few inches to a foot in length, which hang down in tresses and have plain, long, narrow, smooth pinnae, placed alternately on the stalk and joined together at the base. The stalk has no scales. The sori are rather large and prominent, white at first, ripening into a golden yellow, and in round masses, placed in two rows along the underside of the upper segments, equally distant from the centre and the margin. Unlike all the preceding species described, they are not covered with an indusium. The young fronds come out in May, but in sheltered places the plant is nearly evergreen.
The name is derived from poly (many) and pous, podos (a foot), from the many foot-like divisions of the caudex. |
Habitat: |
| The Common Polypody is a common Fern in sheltered places, on shady hedge-banks, and on roots and stumps of trees, moist rocks and old walls. |
Medicinal Usage: |
Alterative, tonic, pectoral and expectorant. Its principal use has been as a mild laxative. It serves as a tonic in dyspepsia and loss of appetite, and as an alterative in skin diseases is found perfectly safe and reliable. It is also used in hepatic complaints.
It proves useful in coughs and catarrhal affection, particularly in dry coughs: it promotes a free expectoration, and the infusion, prepared from 1/2 oz. of crushed root to a pint of boiling water and sweetened, is taken in teacupful doses frequently, proving valuable in the early stages of consumption. The powder is stated to have been used with success for some kinds of worms.
It sometimes produces a rash, but this disappears in a short time and causes no further inconvenience.
A mucilaginous decoction of the fronds was formerly, and probably still is, used in country places as a cure for whooping-cough in children, for this purpose the matured, fruitful fronds, gathered in the autumn, are dried, and when required for use are slowly boiled with coarse sugar. It is still used as a demulcent by the Italians.
The fresh root used to be employed in decoction, or powdered, for melancholia and also for rheumatic swelling of the joints. It is efficacious in jaundice, dropsy and scurvy, and combined with mallows removes hardness of the spleen, stitches in the side and colic. The distilled water of the roots and leaves was considered by the old herbalists good for ague, and the fresh or dried roots, mixed with honey and applied to the nose, were used in the cure of polypus.
Gerard tells us:
'Johannes Mesues reckoneth up Polypodie among those things that do especially dry and make thin: preadventure he had respect to a certain kind of arthritis or ache in the joints: in which not one part but many together most commonly are touched: for which it is very much commended by the Brabanders and other inhabitants about the river Rhene and the Maze. Furthermore Dioscorides saith that the root of Polypodie is very good for members out of joint and for chaps between the fingers.'
Culpepper considers Polypody 'a mild and useful purge, but being very slow, it is generally mixed by infusion or decoction with other ingredients, or in broths with beets, parsley, mallow, cummin, ginger, fennel or anise. The best form to take it for a complaint in the intestines is as follows: To an ounce of the fresh root bruised add an ounce and a half of the fresh roots of white beets and a quart of water, boiling hot and let it stand till next day, then drain it off. A quarter of a pint of this liquor contains the infusion of 2 drams of this root. It should be sweetened with cane sugar or honey.'
The leaves of Polypody when burnt furnish a large proportion of carbonate of potash. |
Ancient Lore: |
POLYPODY POLYPODIUM VULGARE
It gently carries off the contents of the bowels without irritation.
This is a perennial herb of the Fern family, distinguishable by the seeds being in roundish spots, distributed on the under surface of the leaf. The root, the thickness of a finger, is covered with brown scales. It tastes sweetish.
Where to find it: Among mossy stones, tree stumps, at the foot of old walls and shady rocky places.
Flowering time: No flower is produced. The fern is ready for use in autumn.
Astrology: It is under Jupiter in Leo.
Medicinal virtues: A mild and useful purge, usually mixed in broths with Beets, Parsley, Mallow, Cummin, Ginger, Fennel and Anise. For intestinal complaints, take one ounce (28 g) of the fresh bruised root, add an ounce and a half (42 g) of fresh White Beet roots, a handful of Wild Mallow, and pour on a pint and a quarter (6oo ml) of boiling water. Let it stand till next day and then strain. A quarter of a pint (142 mI) of this liquor contains the infusion of two drarns (3.5 g) of Polypody root. Sweeten with sugar-candy or honey before taking.
Modern uses. The root is laxative, and can he used fresh or dried. A decoction is made by boiling 1/2oz (14 g) of the root in i pt (568ml) of boiling water, and sweetened with honey. Dose 2 fl oz (56 ml), three or four times a day. This remedy also acts as a digestive tonic, stimulating the appetite. It is also helpful in relieving coughs and respiratory infections. |
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