Botrychium montanum

Botrychium montanum
Conservation status

Vulnerable  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Psilotopsida
Order: Ophioglossales
Family: Ophioglossaceae[1][2]
Genus: Botrychium
Species: B. montanum
Binomial name
Botrychium montanum
W.H.Wagner

Botrychium montanum is a species of fern known by the common names western goblin and mountain moonwort. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California to Montana, where it grows in the dark understory of coniferous forests and other moist wooded areas. This is very small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one thin gray-green leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is less than 8 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has irregularly shaped angled leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.

References

  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.

External links