Fern is a collective name for wild ferns whose shoots are edible. Fern has a special flavor and is seldom contaminated, and can be used as a delicious vegetable. It is an important foreign trade commodity in the north of China, and enjoys the reputation of "King of Mountain Treasures" at home and abroad.

As early as the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty in China, there are Bo Yi, Shuji two people pick fern in the first Yinshan (now southwest of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province) under the fern for food records. There are more edible ferns, such as ferns, podocarpus ferns, hoof cover ferns and many species of rosette ferns. The young fern leaves picked must be soaked in rice swill or water for several days before eating to remove the toxic ingredients. Fiddlehead ferns can be stir-fried, made into vegetable soups, salads or dried into vegetables.

Famous ferns include mountain fern, vetch, cucumber scent and monkey's leg. Mountain fern is a variant of fern, also known as dragon's head vegetable, grows all over the country. Young curly leaves are collected in spring and can be washed and salted. Vetch is a plant of the genus Ziziphus, also known as branched Ziziphus, can be collected in the spring young tender curly leaves, boiled, then soaked in water for a few moments, fished out and sun-dried into a semi-dry, and then kneaded by hand. Stir-fried vegetables have a bitter flavor. Cucumber fragrance is the podocarpus fern of the bulbous fern family, growing in the moist understory or on both sides of the river, in late spring and early summer when the young leaves grow to 13-15 cm when picking, the young leaves of the brown scales stroked, and then salted or boiled in water and fished out and dried. Fried vegetables tender and crisp with cucumber flavor. Monkey's legs, also known as multi-toothed hoof cover fern, produced in the northeast and north China ravine or under the forest in a shady and wet place. Spring pick young leaves, boiled and dried, remove the scales, can also be salted.

China's fern resources are rich, is a valuable asset to be further developed and utilized. Such as the export of a ton of dried vetch in the price equivalent to the export of 40 tons of soybeans. In the development of the same time, must pay attention to do a good job in the protection of resources, can not be taken to see the buds on the light approach.