Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Ophioglossaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants 3–18+ cm, wholly glabrous; blade and sporophore ± erect in bud; blade bright green in life, sessile or on a short stalk to 5 mm, borne near the middle of the apparent stem and seldom surpassed by it, 1.5–7 × 0.7–3(–3.5) cm, distinctly pinnate, with (1)3–6(7) pairs of similar pinnae, these sessile, crowded and often overlapping, dichotomously veined, without a midrib, flat, broadly flabellate, broader than long, the proximal margin forming an obviously retrorse angle with the rachis, the lowest pair of pinnae not evidently different from the next pair; sporophore and its stalk each 0.5–7 cm, subequal or either one the longer. Open fields and meadows, or sandy or gravelly streambanks; circumboreal and also scattered in the S. Hemisphere, in our range s. to N.Y., Mich., and Minn. June–Aug.
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Discussion
The foregoing description applies to the widespread, nomenclaturally typical, diploid (2n=90) phase of the species. It passes freely into a diploid shade form, often called var. onondagense (Underw.) House, with the blade on an evident stalk generally over 5 mm, the pinnae more remote, often somewhat spoon-shaped rather than flat, and not notably wider than long, the proximal margin diverging widely from the axis. A distinctive dwarf diploid ally of var. onondagense, often with persistent gametophytes, occurs in mature deciduous forests in Mich., Wis., and Minn., and has been called B. mormo W. H. Wagner. A more yellow- green tetraploid (2n=180), morphologically scarcely separable from diploid var. onondagense, is also wide- spread in the N. Amer. portion of the range of B. lunaria, and has been distinguished as B. minganense Vict. A hexaploid much like the minganense phase has been described as B. campestre W. H. Wagner.
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Common Names
moonwort