Flora of North America species comparison

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Botrychium crenulatum

Ophioglossaceae

crenulate moonwort, dainty moonwort, scalloped moonwort

Adder's-tongue family
Habit Plants perennials, terrestrial or epiphytic.
Roots

lacking root hairs, unbranched or with a few narrow lateral branches, in 1 species dichotomously branched.
Stems

simple, unbranched, upright, with eustelic vascular tissue.
Leaves

bases dilated, clasping, forming sheath, open or fused, surrounding successive leaf primordia;

primordia glabrous or with long, uniseriate hairs.
Pinnae

to 5 pairs, spreading, well separated, distance between 1st and 2d pinnae not or slightly more than between 2d and 3d pairs, basal pinna pair approximately equal in size and cutting to adjacent pair, broadly fan-shaped, undivided to tip, margins mainly crenulate to dentate, proximal pinnae with 1 or more shallow incisions, apex rounded, apical lobe linear to linear-cuneate, well separated from adjacent lobes, venation like ribs of fan, midrib absent.

Sporangia

exposed or embedded, 0.5–1.5 mm diam., thick-walled, with thousands of spores.
Spores

all 1 kind, trilete, thick-walled, surface rugate, tuberculate, baculate (with projecting rods usually higher than wide), sometimes joined in delicate network, mostly with ± warty surface.
Gametophytes

not green, usually fleshy, round or linear, subterranean, mycorrhizal.
Trophophore

stalk 0.5–7 mm;

blade yellow-green, oblong, 1-pinnate, to 6 × 2 cm, thin, herbaceous.

blades compound to simple, rarely absent, veins anastomosing or free, pinnate, or arranged like ribs of fan.
Sporophores

1–2-pinnate, 1.3–3 times length of trophophore.

pinnately branched or simple.
Indument

absent or of widely scattered, long, uniseriate hairs, especially on petioles and rachises.
2n

=90.

Botrychium crenulatum

Ophioglossaceae
Phenology Leaves appearing in mid to late spring, dying in late summer; in extremely dry years of shorter duration or not appearing at all.
Habitat Local in marshy and springy areas
Elevation 1200–2500 m (3900–8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY
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Nearly worldwide
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Botrychium crenulatum is commonly associated with B. simplex in California. In the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon it occurs with B. ascendens, B. lunaria, and B. minganense.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Ophioglossaceae comprise two clearly defined subfamilies, Botrychioideae and Ophioglossoideae, which are sometimes recognized as distinct families. Ophioglossaceae may be only distantly related to the ferns and more closely related to Marattiales and certain seedplants, especially Cycadales, in such characteristics as stelar type, cork cambium, dilated leaf bases, conduplicate vernation, intercalary leaf growth, collateral leaf traces, circular-bordered pits, eusporangia, massive gametophytes, sunken archegonia, and presence in some species of endoscopic embryos.

(Key to genera of Ophioglossaceae)

Genera 5, species ca. 70–80 (3 genera, 38 species in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Blades mostly pinnately divided or lobed; veins free; margins entire to dentate to lacerate; sporangial clusters pinnately branched, sporangia sessile or terminating short stalks.
Botrychium
1. Blades undivided or palmately lobed; veins anastomosing; margins entire; sporangial clusters with sporangia embedded in compact linear spike.
→ 2
2. Trophophore blades simple, unlobed, to 4.5 cm wide; main areoles mostly less than 6 mm wide; sporophore 1 per leaf at ground level or above ground level, or absent; plants terrestrial.
Ophioglossum
2. Trophophore blades palmately lobed, to 30 cm wide; main areoles large, mostly more than 30 mm; sporophores several to many per leaf at base of blade; plants epiphytic.
Cheiroglossa
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2, p. 85. Authors: Warren H. Wagner Jr., Florence S. Wagner.
Parent taxa Ophioglossaceae > Botrychium > subg. Botrychium
Sibling taxa
B. acuminatum, B. ascendens, B. biternatum, B. boreale, B. campestre, B. dissectum, B. echo, B. gallicomontanum, B. hesperium, B. jenmanii, B. lanceolatum, B. lunaria, B. lunarioides, B. matricariifolium, B. minganense, B. montanum, B. mormo, B. multifidum, B. oneidense, B. pallidum, B. paradoxum, B. pedunculosum, B. pinnatum, B. pseudopinnatum, B. pumicola, B. rugulosum, B. simplex, B. spathulatum, B. virginianum
Subordinate taxa
Botrychium, Cheiroglossa, Ophioglossum
Name authority W. H. Wagner: Amer. Fern J. 71: 21. (1981) Agardh
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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