VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Comptonia peregrina | Sweetfern 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Sweetfern fruits are eaten by flickers [7].  It has limited use as food
and cover for cottontail rabbits and ruffed grouse [23].  In Minnesota
moose browse sweetfern in winter and spring, and white-tailed deer
browse it in winter only [18].  In oak forests of Pennsylvania
white-tailed deer browse sweetfern most heavily in winter and spring,
somewhat during fall, and not at all during summer [6].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Food values for sweetfern have been listed [31]:

Time/Place          crude prot.  crude fiber   fat    N-free extract

March/Mich.         13.3%        22.1%         5.6%   55.7%
Aug/Maine            9.7%        14.6%         6.5%   67.0%
Winter/Maine        10.8%         ---          ---     ---


COVER VALUE : 
Prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse use sweetfern for nesting cover [14].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Because sweetfern fixes nitrogen and is drought tolerant, it is ideal
for erosion control on dry sandy banks, sand dunes, along roads, or
under powerlines [20,15,16].  

Sweetfern colonized metal-contaminated soils near Sudbury, Ontario, 1
year following application of dolomite limestone [37].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Sweetfern makes a good garden shrub because it maintains its 3- to
4-foot (1-1.3 m) height for a long time without pruning [16].  However,
it is difficult to propagate, and balled and burlapped plants often do
not survive.  Plants are best started with root cuttings [16].  Leaves
are used used for potpourri, and tea made from the leaves has been used
to relieve symptoms of dysentery [8,31].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Sweetfern is a host to sweetfern blister rust (Cronartium comptoniae),
which reduces growth of jack pine (Pinus banksiana) [12].  

Following logging sweetfern was more abundant on sites where operations
exposed bare mineral soil than on sites where slash was left [17].

Burning and disking following logging can stimulate the growth of
sweetfern so that it forms dense patches.  It can outcompete tree
seedlings under such circumstances [3].

Lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium, V. myrtilloides) stands are
important for commercial crops in Canada and New England.  Sweetfern can
be a serious invader on these sites, but is also controlled easily with
chemicals such as picloram, dicamba, and 2,4-D [13,38].  

Related categories for Species: Comptonia peregrina | Sweetfern