In a message dated 6/9/01 8:47:14 pm, UnknownSender@UnknownDomain writes:
>Huh? I've pulled up bracken with my bare hands, and I've never had
>any such problems. Bracken stalks only extend a short distance into
>the ground, and then rapidly split up into small roots. They pull out
>very easily, leaving the roots behind. Granted, you might have a
>problem with hundreds of them, as with just about any sort of plant,
>but light gloves would take care of that.
>
>Maybe you're thinking of some other fern species.
No - I trained in Botany and Horticulture, and do know the difference between
bracken and other fern species.
I grew up in a heavily bracken polluted area in the south of England, and
repeat that bracken stalks can lacerate the hands if pulled without gloves.
That is, after the stalks harden up about mid season. I agree that they are
soft early on in the season (at which time they can be cooked and eaten like
asparagus, I have read).
I was Head Gardener of a very famous garden on the west coast of
Scotland for a while, and we had large areas of bracken there: neither my
gardens staff nor the local forestry workers who came in to cut the wilder
areas of the gardens with the scythe would have dreamt of pulling bracken
stalks without leather glove protection.
Nicolas B., Lanark,
Scotland.
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