Peeled and baked in the pit, the rhizome is tasty when eaten with fresh or dry salmon eggs. The Sword Fern leaves were used to line baking pits. The leaves were spread on drying, racks when drying berries, because the beries wouldn't stick to them. The young curled leaves were chewed raw and swallowed for tonsilitis or sore throats. The leaves were used for mattresses.
Individual fronds live for several years and remain attached to the rhizome after withering.
Clusters of spores are on the bottom of the fronds. They grow largest in the shade. Ferns begin to produce spores on a regular, yearly basis when they are between 1 and 5 years of age. From early to midsummer mature ferns produce millions of light, wind-borne spores. They may retain some spores over the winter which are released the following spring.