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Focus on the Adder’s Tongue Orchid

Adder’s Tongue is a perennial fern. It is made up of two types of leaves called ‘fronds’: a sterile and a fertile one.The sterile frond is large and lanceolate, it is made up of a thick blade acting as a sheath to the petiole of the fertile frond, along its entire length. The fertile frond is spike-shaped, with spores which guarantee the scattering of the species’ seeds.

Adder’s Tongue can grow at altitudes of up to 1,600m, and prefers damp, temperate regions such as marsh and moor land in Europe, Asia, Northern Africa and the United States.

It is found throughout most of France, and is a protected species in a number of regions where it is threatened by intensive drainage.

In traditional medicine, it was famous for its antiseptic and haemostatic properties. Its leaves were popular in wound-healing ointments, and in  tea to sooth haemorragia. According to the Theory of Signatures, it also treated snakebites.