the.com/bracken
The fern that poisoned the ground so nothing else gets to grow there.
means A tough, fast-spreading wild fern that carpets hillsides and moorland, often forming dense thickets that crowd out other plants.
from Bracken comes from Middle English 'braken,' tracing back to Old Norse roots (related to words like 'brakni') — a reminder that the word likely sailed in with Scandinavian settlers before taking root, quite fittingly, as the plant it names.
- toxicity
- carcinogenic spores, linked to livestock and human cancers
- age
- fossils predate dinosaurs by 55 million years
- strategy
- releases toxins into soil to kill competing plants
- spread
- covers over 1 million hectares in UK alone