Male Fern

Male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, is a fern of the family Dryopteridaceae found across much of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America, typically growing in shaded woodlands and hedgerows. Its common name has no connection to plant sex, since ferns do not have male and female individuals the way flowering plants do; the name instead reflects an old herbal contrast with the more finely divided lady fern. Its rootstock was historically used in Europe as a folk remedy to expel intestinal tapeworms, an extract effective enough to see genuine medicinal use before safer treatments replaced it, though the compound is toxic in excess.