Botrychium is a genus of ferns, seedless vascular plants in the family Ophioglossaceae. Botrychium species are known as moonworts. They are small, with fleshy roots, and reproduce by spores shed into the air. One part of the leaf, the trophophore, is sterile and fernlike; the other, the sporophore, is fertile and carries the clusters of sporangia or spore cases. Some species only occasionally emerge above ground and gain most of their nourishment from an association with mycorrhizal fungi.
Sceptridium is a genus of seedless vascular plants in the family Ophioglossaceae, closely allied to the genus Botrychium. It is also closely related to the genus Botrypus. Sceptridium species are commonly called the grape-ferns.
Botrypus virginianus, synonym Botrychium virginianum, sometimes called rattlesnake fern is a species of perennial fern in the adders-tongue family. It is monotypic within the genus Botrypus, meaning that it is the only species within the genus. It is called the rattlesnake fern in some parts of North America, due to its habit of growing in places where rattlesnakes are also found. Rattlesnake fern prefers to grow in rich, moist woods in dense shade and will not tolerate direct sunlight.
Osmundastrum is genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Osmundaceae with one living species, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, the cinnamon fern. It is native to the Americas and eastern Asia, growing in swamps, bogs and moist woodlands.
Polystichum acrostichoides, commonly denominated Christmas fern, is a perennial, evergreen fern native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Florida and eastern Texas. It is one of the most common ferns in eastern North America, being found in moist and shady habitats in woodlands, stream banks and rocky slopes. The common name derives from the evergreen fronds, which are often still green at Christmas.
Botrychium pumicola, with the common name pumice moonwort, is a rare fern.
Sceptridium multifidum is a fern species in the Ophioglossaceae, known by the common names leathery grapefern and leathery moonwort.
Aspidotis densa is a species of fern in the Cheilanthoid subfamily, known by the common name Indian's dream or Serpentine fern or dense lace fern. It is native to the west coast of North America from British Columbia to California and east to the Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming; there is a disjunct population on serpentine soils in Quebec.
Botrychium ascendens is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common names triangle-lobe moonwort and upswept moonwort. It is native to North America from British Columbia to northern California as well as parts of eastern Canada. It lives in different habitat types, including grassy riverside areas. This is very small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one yellow-green leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is up to 6 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has fan-shaped or wedge-shaped leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with tiny grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.
Botrychium crenulatum is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common names scalloped moonwort and dainty moonwort. It is native to North America from British Columbia to California to Wyoming, where it is uncommon throughout most of its range, appearing incidentally at scattered spots on wet meadows in coniferous forests and marshy areas such as swamps. This is very small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one thin, shiny, yellow-green leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is up to about 6 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has veined, fan-shaped leaflets with wrinkly edges. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with tiny grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.
Botrychium lunaria is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common name moonwort or common moonwort. It is the most widely distributed moonwort, growing throughout the Northern Hemisphere across Eurasia and from Alaska to Greenland, as well as temperate parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Botrychium minganense is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common name Mingan moonwort. It is native to North America from Alaska and northern Canada to Arizona, where it is uncommon throughout most of its range, appearing at scattered spots in coniferous forests and marshy areas such as swamps. This is very small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one thin leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is up to 10 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has fan-shaped or spoon-shaped leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.
Botrychium montanum is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae 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.
Botrychium pinnatum is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae, known by the common name northwestern moonwort. It is native to North America from Alaska to northern Canada to California and Arizona, where it is generally scattered and uncommon, growing in coniferous forests and grassy meadows. This is very small plant growing from an underground caudex and sending one thin, shiny, 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 flat sterile part of the leaf has oval to widely lance-shaped leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.
Amauropelta noveboracensis, the New York fern, is a perennial species of fern found throughout the eastern United States and Canada, from Louisiana to Newfoundland, but most concentrated within Appalachia and the Atlantic Northeast. New York ferns often forms spreading colonies within the forests they inhabit.
Sceptridium dissectum is a common fern in the family Ophioglossaceae, occurring in eastern North America. Like other plants in this group, it normally only sends up one frond per year. It has long been the subject of confusion because the frond presents in one of two forms, either the normal form that resembles other plants in the genus, or the skeletonized form.
Botrychium matricariifolium is a species of fern in the Ophioglossaceae family. It is referred to by the common names chamomile grape-fern, daisyleaf grape-fern, and matricary grape-fern. It is native to Europe and parts of eastern North America, including eastern Canada and parts of the United States.
Asplenium × ebenoides is a hybrid fern native to eastern North America, part of the "Appalachian Asplenium complex" of related hybrids. The sterile offspring of the walking fern (A. rhizophyllum) and the ebony spleenwort (A. platyneuron), A. × ebenoides is intermediate in morphology between its two parents, combining the long, narrow blade of A. rhizophyllum with a dark stem and lobes or pinnae similar to those of A. platyneuron. While A. × ebenoides is generally sterile, fertile specimens with double the number of chromosomes are known from Havana Glen, Alabama. These fertile allotetraploids were reclassified as a separate species named A. tutwilerae in 2007, retaining the name A. × ebenoides for the sterile diploids only.
Asplenium tutwilerae is a rare epipetric fern found only in Hale County, Alabama, United States. A. tutwilerae is a fertile allotetraploid, formed by the chromosomal doubling of a specimen of the sterile diploid A. × ebenoides, a hybrid of A. platyneuron and A. rhizophyllum. Except for its spores, which are fertile rather than malformed, A. tutwilerae is essentially identical to A. × ebenoides and was described as part of that species until 2007. It is named in honor of Julia Tutwiler, who discovered the only known wild population at Havana Glen in 1873.
Botrychium campestre is a fern species in Ophioglossaceae, commonly called prairiemoonwort, prairie dunewort, Iowa moonwort, or plains grapefern. It was first discovered in 1982 and described a few years later.
