Botrychium lunaria

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Botrychium lunaria
Conservation status

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Psilotopsida
Order: Ophioglossales
Family: Ophioglossaceae[1][2]
Genus: Botrychium
Species: B. lunaria
Binomial name
Botrychium lunaria
(L.) Sw. [3]
Synonyms[4][5]

Botrychium lunaria is a species of fern known by the common name common moonwort. It is the most widely distributed moonwort, growing throughout the Northern Hemisphere across Eurasia and from Alaska to Greenland, as well as parts of the Southern Hemisphere including South America and Australia.[6]

This is a small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one fleshy, dark green leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is 6 to 10 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has 4 to 9 pairs of fan-shaped leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with rounded, grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.

It dies down at the end of summer; it frequently lies dormant for several seasons before re-appearing.[7]

Frond; background squares are 5mm across.

References and external links

  1. ↑ Botrychium Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 16 Jan 2012
  2. ↑ Christenhusz, Maarten J. M.; Zhang, Xian-Chun; Schneider, Harald (2011). "A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns" (PDF). Phytotaxa 19: 7–54. 
  3. ↑  Under its treatment as Botrychium lunaria (from its basionym of Osmunda lunaria), this plant name was first published in Journal für die Botanik 1800(2): 110. 1801. "Name - !Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw.". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved November 2, 2011. 
  4. ↑ "Name - !Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw. synonyms". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved November 2, 2011. 
  5. ↑  Osmunda lunaria, the basionym of B lunaria, was first described and published in Species Plantarum 2: 1064. 1753. "Name - Osmunda lunaria L.". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved November 2, 2011. 
  6. ↑ Welsh Ferns; Hutchinson & Thomas; Seventh edition; 1996
  7. ↑ The Illustrated Field Guide to Ferns and Allied Plants of the British Isles; Jermy & Camus; First edition; 1991
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