The Serumpun Codex · Leaves, ferns and palms
Midin
The young fronds of a climbing fern, picked at forest edges and riverbanks.
The entry
- Name
- Midin
- Other names
- Paku midin; lemidin; lembiding (Sabah)
- Scientific name
- Stenochlaena palustris (Burm.f.) Bedd.
- What it is
- The young fronds of a climbing fern, picked at forest edges and riverbanks.
- Knowledge from
- The Penan, who eat it as a vegetable, and the Iban of Lubok Antu, Sri Aman, who fry or boil the young fronds as kemiding.
- How it is used
- Young fronds stir-fried with garlic or belacan, or boiled. The bracken toxin has never been found in it.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- Fern tips in Course III, Mountain, at Osaka.
- Season and place
- Grows wild in freshwater and peat swamps and in secondary forest, and is also farmed commercially; a 2018 Borneo Post column reports the main production along the Batang Baram near Miri. Young fronds are harvested about every three days; no fixed season is recorded.
- Conservation status
- Not assessed on the IUCN Red List; not listed under the Sarawak Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998.
- Codex Alimentarius
- No Codex standard
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: who shared it with Serumpun.
Sources
- Stenochlaena palustris
- Borneo Post, 2018
- Awang-Kanak & Abu Bakar, Food Research, 2019
- Chai Chen Chong, Sarawak Department of Agriculture (ARC Semongok), Miding, Farmers Bulletin, 2005
- Edible ferns among the favourites from Sarawak, The Borneo Post, 16 December 2018 (PressReader)
- GBIF, IUCN Red List category lookup for Stenochlaena palustris (Not Evaluated)
- Forest Department Sarawak, Protected Plants of Sarawak (Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998, Part II)
- Sarawak Government, Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 (Cap. 26), Second Schedule, LawNet 2024
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 1 November 2026.
Anyone may cook with this knowledge, commercially too, provided the community it comes from is credited by name. To correct or withdraw this entry, write to the Custodian at connect@chefjameswon.com.
How to cite this entry
Serumpun Sarawak (2026) ‘Midin’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/midin/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.