Vegetable Fern plant, Jac, Paco fern, Diplazium esculentum

Vegetable fern or Jac is one of the few perennial vegetables that produce well in full shade. An ideal and pretty understory plant to 1 meter, it grows well in the shadier areas of your food forest. As a fern it needs plenty of moisture and can even be grown as a marginal pond plant. Jac likes heat and it is probably not very frost hardy. Here in the Port Stephens area it does grow, but much slower than in tropical areas.

The young fronds are boiled and added to salads, stir-fries or pickled. There are many classical Thai recipes to try!