Fiddleheads or Fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds of a
young fern, harvested for use as a vegetable. Left on the plant,
each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond (circinate
vernation). As fiddleheads are harvested early in the season
before the frond has opened and reached its full height, they
are cut fairly close to the ground. The fiddlehead resembles the
curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed
instrument, such as a violin. It is also called a crozier, after
the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the
shepherd's crook. The fiddleheads of certain ferns are eaten as
a cooked leaf vegetable. The most popular of these are: -
Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, found worldwide (Health Warning) -
Ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, found in northern
regions worldwide, and the central/eastern part of North America
(Health Warning) - Cinnamon fern or buckhorn fern, Osmunda
cinnamomea, found in the Eastern parts of North America - Royal
fern, Osmunda regalis, found