AFRICAN CLIMBING FERN

CAUTION: DO NOT CONSUME ANY FIDDLEHEADS before doing your own research into the potentially toxic chemicals found in them. Fiddleheads should never be eaten in large amounts. 

EDIBLE FIDDLEHEADS: "The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine." [1] "The young fronds (croziers, fiddleheads) are eaten in Madagascar." [11,12] "No known hazards." [1] Grower Jim writes, "Young fiddleheads are edible if cooked until tender." [8]
MEDICINAL SAP: "In Congo the sap is taken with a ripe banana as an aphrodisiac." [11,12]
GROUNDCOVER: It "can be used as ground cover." [4] It is "able to quickly cover large areas." [3]
IN FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS: Grower Jim writes, "The [deep green shiny] leaves have heavy substance and are long-lasting as cut greens in floral arrangements."[8] 

NATIVE TO: "Africa: Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, S. Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius." [1] It is usually cultivated in shady gardens, and is also found growing wild in Miami-Dade, Pinellas, and Hillsborough counties here in Florida. [5]
HABITAT: "Coastal swamp forest." [4 via 1]
NOTE: "The chain ferns were formerly considered to belong to the Polypodiaceae." [7]
DESCRIPTION: "A large [perennial evergreen] fern with a straggling and climbing rhizome." [1]
- HEIGHT:  It "can be up to 20 meters long and 15 mm in diameter; it can growing high up into the surrounding trees." [1]
- LEAVES:  "The leathery leaves can be up to 180 cm long, with pinnate sterile leaves up to 100 cm long. The rather coarse, pinnate fronds are widely spaced and quickly cover large areas." [3,4] The spore-producing fronds are very thin. [8]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION FROM EOL.ORG: eol.org writes, "Large procumbent or climbing fern, rooting in the ground. Rhizome up to 20 m long and 10-20 mm in diameter, creeping along the ground or ascending trees; rhizome scales sparse, thick, entire, dark brown, awl-shaped, nonpersistent, 1-5 mm long. Fronds dimorphic, up to 3 m long, arching, widely spaced. Stipe 30-60 cm long, pale brown, grooved, glabrous. Sterile lamina imparipinnate, firmly membranous, ovate-oblong in outline, 0.5-2 × 0.2-0.7 m; pinnae about 20 alternate pairs, linear-lanceolate, glabrous, shortly petiolate, apex pointed, base unequally cuneate, margins minutely serrate, 15-35 × 2-3.8 cm. Fertile lamina 2-pinnate or rarely pinnate, usually slightly shoter than the sterile lamina, with 25-30 pairs of lateral pinnae; pinnae petiolate, about 4 cm apart, pinnately divided into very irregular narrowly linear segments, completely covered with sporangia below, sori exindusiate." [6]
CULTURE:
- HARDINESS: USDA zones 9-11. [8] The University of Connecticut ranks it from zones 10A-11. [10]
- LIGHT: "Sun or shade." [8] "A very adaptable plant, able to grow in full sun even though deep to moderate shade are its normal habitat." [3] 

- SOIL AND WATER: "Wet or dry" conditions. [8] "Plants can succeed in moist soils as well as the wetter conditions they usually grow in." [3] "Prefers an acid soil."  [3]
- PROPAGATION: Grower Jim writes, "Mature specimens of Giant Vine Fern grow a few specialized fertile fronds that produce spores, by which this plant can be propagated, although it's much simpler and faster to use sections of the rhizome." [8]