蕨（学名：Pteridium aquilinum var. latiusculum），俗称蕨菜，又称拳头菜，是蕨科蕨属下的一种野生蕨类植物，同欧洲蕨，嫩芽可食用。在中国大陆以及东南亚有广泛分布，而在这些地区餐桌上也受到了欢迎。由于其含有的原蕨苷，具有证据明确的致癌作用；牛羊大量食用蕨类会导致死亡或失明，并可以通过母牛的牛奶传给小牛；人食用会导致癌症的发病率提高，它也被相信是导致日本胃癌高比率的原凶之一。日本中部山区调查过吃蕨菜和食道癌的关系。发现在那里的居民中，吃蕨菜使得男性的食道癌发生率增加了2.1倍，而女性则增加了3.7倍。在英国的北威尔士地区，胃癌发生率一直很高。1990年进行过一项“病例-对照”研究也显示幼年时代吃蕨菜会增加后来胃癌发生的风险。类似的研究在世界其他地方还做过一些，结果也基本一致。

Pteridium aquilinum (bracken, brake or common bracken), also known as "eagle fern," is a species of fern occurring in temperate and subtropical regions in both hemispheres. The extreme lightness of its spores has led to its global distribution.

Common bracken was first described as Pteris aquilina by the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in Volume 2 of his Species Plantarum in 1753. The origin of the specific epithet derived from the Latin aquila "eagle", but what it pertains to has been a matter of some debate. It is generally held to be the shape of the mature fronds appearing akin to an eagle's wing. However, medieval scholars, including Erasmus, thought the pattern of the fibres seen in a transverse section of the stipe resembled a double-headed eagle or oak tree. It was given its current binomial name by Friedrich Adalbert Maximilian Kuhn in 1879.