Shrubs Of The Great Basin: A Natural History

Fern Bush

Fern Bush Chamaebatiaria millefolium EITHER COMMON NAME, fern bush or desert sweet, is certainly appropriate for Chamaebatiaria, since its leaves are like minute fern fronds and the whole plant has a pleasant fragrance. The leaves, which are only 2 to 5 millimeters long, are clustered near the ends of the twigs in whorls which resemble a miniature cycad. The symmetrical design of the fern bush is in hannony with the rocky habitat in which it most commonly grows, frequently in the company of juniper and pinyon pine. Usually densely branched, it attains a height of 1 to 2 meters. During the summer, the younger twigs bear elongated clusters of white flowers about 15 millimeters across. Each flower has the typical fonn of the more primitive members of the rose family to which it belongs, inasmuch as there are five sepals, five petals, numerous stamens, and five pistils, with the latter more or less fused together within a small, cuplike structure. Each of these pistils eventually matures into a dry, brown pod containing sev, eral seeds. The fern bush skirts most of the Great Basin, since it has a distribution along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada north into Oregon and Idaho and then south into Utah, eastern Nevada, Wyoming, and Arizona. In northern Nevada it can be found as far west as the area around Ely, though it is more common in southern Nevada in the mountains. It is common in the raw lava fields of northeastern California. Although it might appear to be eminently suitable for cultivation, it remains as infrequent in gardens as it was in 1900, when Liberty Hyde Bailey noted in his Cyclopedia ofAmerican Harticulture that it was "rarely cultivated," even though it was hardy as far north as Massachusetts, and "likely to be killed by too much moisture during 154 ROSACEAE the winter." The most recent edition of the standard Sunset "New Western Garden Book" makes no mention of the fern bush. Indians in the Great Basin made use of a tea prepared from fern bush leaves as a treatment for cramps and stomachaches. Sheep and deer, but not cattle, are said to browse on fern bush occasionally. In any case, the fern bush is not really abundant anywhere and cannot be regarded as an impor~ tant food plant. The affinities of the fern bush are well illustrated by the name changes it has undergone since it was originally described in 1857, from material col~ leeted in the Williams Mountains in Arizona. Then it was considered to be a Spiraea, because of the resemblance of its flowers to those of other mem~ bers of that genus. Bailey lists it under Sorbaria because of its dissected leaves. It was once placed in the very similarly named genus Chamaebatia as well as one other genus. We hope that it has found its final resting place, though botanists, like other scientists, never seem to be able to make up their minds. Ofcourse, botany like any other field is always progressing and developing new insights, and we could validly say that any intellectual en~ terprise which finally and conclusively makes up its mind has in all proba~ bility become stultified, if not moribund! Chamaebatiaria gets its name from its close resemblance to Chamaebatia, otherwise known as Sierra mountain misery, a plant found in California but not in the Great Basin. The latter is derived from the Greek chamae, which means low, and batos signifying bramble, referring to the bramblelike flowers. The species name millefolium means many leaves, but in this case it is more obviously a reference to the resemblance between the fern bush leaf and that of the common weedy yarrow or milfoil. ...