| sweet fern n. An aromatic deciduous shrub (Comptonia peregrina) of eastern North America, having narrow, deeply lobed, fernlike leaves and minute flowers grouped in catkinlike heads. |
| sweet fern | |
noun | |
| 1. | mat-forming lithophytic or terrestrial fern with creeping rootstocks and large pinnatifid fronds found throughout North America and Europe and Africa and east Asia [syn: common polypody] |
| 2. | deciduous shrub of eastern North America with sweet scented fernlike leaves and tiny white flowers |