fiddlehead

Noun

• New World fern having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds; the early uncurling fronds are edible

• tall fern of northern temperate regions having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling ostrich plumes

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  cinnamon fern , fiddlehead fern , Osmunda cinnamonea , ostrich fern , shuttlecock fern , Matteuccia struthiopteris , Pteretis struthiopteris , Onoclea struthiopteris