Flora of North America species comparison

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Botrychium multifidum

Botrychium gallicomontanum

botryche à feuille couchée, leather grapefern, leathery grapefern

Frenchman's bluff grapefern, Frenchman's bluff moonwort
Pinnae

to 10 pairs, approximate to remote, horizontal to ascending, distance between 1st and 2d pinnae not or slightly more than between 2d and 3d pairs, divided to tip.

to 6 pairs, strongly ascending, well separated, distance between the 1st and 2d pinnae considerably greater than between 2d and 3d pairs, basal pinna pair approximately equal in size and cutting to adjacent pair, fan-shaped to narrowly spatulate, often asymmetric, with distal portion longer than and arching over proximal portion, undivided to tip, rarely 2-cleft, margins entire to irregularly cleft, apex rounded, venation like ribs of fan, midrib absent.
Trophophore

stalk 2–15 cm, 0.3–1.2 times length of trophophore rachis;

blade shiny green, plane, ternate, 2–3-pinnate, to 25 × 35 cm, leathery.

stalk 1–8 mm;

blade yellow-green, ovate to oblong-linear, 1-pinnate, to 3 × 0.9 cm, firm, glaucescent.
Pinnules

obliquely ovate, rounded, margins usually ± entire to shallowly crenulate, sometimes inconspicuously and shallowly denticulate, apex rounded, venation pinnate.

Sporophores

2–3-pinnate, 1.2 times length of trophophore.

2–3-pinnate, 1.5–3 times length of trophophore.
2n

=90.

Botrychium multifidum

Botrychium gallicomontanum
Phenology Leaves green over winter, appearing in spring. Leaves appearing in midspring, dying in summer.
Habitat Widespread mainly in fields Prairies
Elevation 0–3000 m (0–9800 ft) 300 m (1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; QC; SK; Greenland; Europe; nw Asia
from FNA
MN
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Botrychium multifidum is rather similar to B. robustum (Ruprecht) L.Underwood of Japan, eastern China, and the former Soviet republics. Specimens identified as B. robustum have been collected on Unalaska Island.

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

Botrychium gallicomontanum is known only from one locality in western Minnesota, where it grows with both B. campestre and B. simplex. It is intermediate between them in the spacing, shape, and stalk length of the pinnae. This is one of four moonwort species that commonly produce dense clusters of minute, spheric gemmae at the root bases. This moonwort is probably an allopolyploid of the two associated species.

Of conservation concern.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Ophioglossaceae > Botrychium > subg. Sceptridium > sect. Sceptridium Ophioglossaceae > Botrychium > subg. Botrychium
Sibling taxa
B. acuminatum, B. ascendens, B. biternatum, B. boreale, B. campestre, B. crenulatum, 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. oneidense, B. pallidum, B. paradoxum, B. pedunculosum, B. pinnatum, B. pseudopinnatum, B. pumicola, B. rugulosum, B. simplex, B. spathulatum, B. virginianum
B. acuminatum, B. ascendens, B. biternatum, B. boreale, B. campestre, B. crenulatum, B. dissectum, B. echo, 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
Synonyms Osmunda multifida, B. californicum, B. coulteri, B. silaifolium
Name authority (S. G. Gmelin) Ruprecht: Bemerk. Botrychium 40. (1859) Farrar & Johnson Groh: Amer. Fern J. 81: 1, figs. 1, 2, 4. (1991)
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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