Botrypus

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Botrypus
Botrychium virginianum.JPG
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Ophioglossales
Family: Ophioglossaceae
Subfamily: Botrychioideae
Genus: Botrypus
Michx.
Species:
B. virginianus
Binomial name
Botrypus virginianus
Synonyms [ citation needed ]
  • Genus:
    • Botrychium section OsmundopterisMilde
    • Botrychium (Osmundopteris) (Milde) Clausen
    • Osmundopteris(Milde) Small
    • Botrychium section VirginianaeClausen
  • Species:
    • Osmunda virginianaL.
    • Botrychium virginianum(L.) Sw.
    • Japanobotrychium virginianum(L.) M.Nishida
    • Osmundopteris virginiana(L.) Small

Botrypus virginianus, synonym Botrychium virginianum, sometimes called rattlesnake fern is a species of perennial fern in the adders-tongue family. [2] 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. [3] [4] Rattlesnake fern prefers to grow in rich, moist woods in dense shade and will not tolerate direct sunlight.

Contents

Description

It is a low growing species, typically being a foot high or smaller. The leaf emerges in the early spring and will senesce in late summer. The leaf is roughly triangularly shaped and 15–50 cm in size and held roughly parallel to the ground. The leaf is 3-4 times pinnately compound, brightly green colored, and feels soft to the touch. The stem is round and bicolor, being pinkish or light tan at the base but greenish nearer the branches or leaves. The diploid number is 184. [5]

Rattlesnake fern has separate fertile and sterile leaves, when present the sterile leaf arises halfway up the stalk and the fertile leaf exists at the tip. The spores are shed in late spring. Like other ferns rattlesnake fern undergoes alternation of generations and the form described in this article is the sporophyte.

This fern has been used medicinally. In India it is still used to treat dysentery. [6]

Taxonomy and genetics

Spore-producing frond of Botrypus virginianus Botrychium virginianum spore-producing frond.JPG
Spore-producing frond of Botrypus virginianus

Recent[ when? ] research has determined that the mitochondria are genetic chimera. DNA from some member of the Santalales, possibly a species of mistletoe, has transferred to the mitochondrial genome of this species of fern. [7] It is believed that this transfer may have helped to enable this plant's cosmopolitan global distribution.

This plant has traditionally been included in the genus Botrychium as the subgenus Osmundopteris (based on the species' superficial similarities to the genus Osmunda [8] ), but was unique within the genus because of chromosome number and other signatures, including the inclusion of presumed mistletoe DNA within its mitochondria. Recent[ when? ] research has established that this plant is sister to all other botrychioid plants, including both the genus Botrychium sensu stricto – rattlesnake fern, [9] common grapefern [10] – and the genus Sceptridium, with the exception of a single known species, previously included in Botrypus, which is B. strictus. That plant was shown to be sister to all other botrychioids, so must be segregated in its own genus. [11]

Distribution

This is a wide-ranging species. It abounds in many parts of the United States, in the mountains of Mexico, in Australia, in some parts of Asia, as the Himalaya Mountains, and is found also in Norway, in the Karelia region of Finland and Russia, and around Gulf of Bothnia, although in no other part of Europe. It is large and succulent and is boiled and eaten in the Himalayas.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fern</span> Class of vascular plants

The ferns are a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients, and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ophioglossaceae</span> Family of ferns

Ophioglossaceae, the adder's-tongue family, is a small family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, it is the only family in the order Ophioglossales, which together with the Psilotales is placed in the subclass Ophioglossidae. The Ophioglossidae are one of the groups traditionally known as eusporangiate ferns. Members of the family differ from other ferns in a number of ways. Many have only a single fleshy leaf at a time. Their gametophytes are subterranean and rely on fungi for energy.

<i>Botrychium</i> Genus of ferns in the family Ophioglossaceae

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.

<i>Sceptridium</i> Genus of ferns

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.

<i>Osmundastrum</i> Species of fern

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.

<i>Botrychium pumicola</i> Western North American species of moonwort

Botrychium pumicola, with the common name pumice moonwort, is a rare fern.

<i>Struthiopteris spicant</i> Species of fern in the family Blechnaceae

Struthiopteris spicant, syn. Blechnum spicant, is a species of fern in the family Blechnaceae, known by the common names hard-fern or deer fern. It is native to Europe, western Asia, northern Africa, and western North America. Like some other species in the family Blechnaceae, it has two types of leaves. The sterile leaves have flat, wavy-margined leaflets 5 to 8 millimeters wide, while the fertile leaves have much narrower leaflets, each with two thick rows of sori on the underside.

<i>Sceptridium multifidum</i> Species of fern

Sceptridium multifidum is a fern species in the Ophioglossaceae, known by the common names leathery grapefern and leathery moonwort.

<i>Botrychium ascendens</i> North American species of moonwort

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.

<i>Botrychium crenulatum</i> North American species of moonwort

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.

<i>Botrychium lunaria</i> Worldwide temperate species of moonwort

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.

<i>Botrychium minganense</i> North American species of moonwort

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.

<i>Botrychium montanum</i> North American species of moonwort

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 very small plant grows from an underground caudex 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.

<i>Botrychium pinnatum</i> North American species of moonwort

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.

<i>Cryptogramma acrostichoides</i> Species of fern

Cryptogramma acrostichoides is a fern species in the Cryptogrammoideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae. It is known by the common names American parsley fern and American rockbrake and is native to most of western North America, where it grows in the cracks of rocks in many types of sunny mountainous habitat.

<i>Homalosorus</i> Genus of ferns

Homalosorus is a genus of fern with only one species, Homalosorus pycnocarpos. It may also be referred to by its older synonyms Athyrium pycnocarpon and Diplazium pycnocarpon. Commonly referred to as the narrow-leaved glade fern, narrow-leaved-spleenwort, or glade fern, it is endemic to eastern North America and typically grows in moist woodlands. Once classified in the family Athyriaceae due to its linear, often doubled sori, in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, it is placed in the small family Diplaziopsidaceae, whose other three species are native to east Asia. Other sources place the genus in the subfamily Diplaziopsidoideae of a very broadly defined family Aspleniaceae, equivalent to the suborder Aspleniineae in PPG I.

<i>Sceptridium dissectum</i> Species of fern

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.

<i>Botrychium matricariifolium</i> Temperate Northern Hemisphere species of moonwort

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.

<i>Botrychium paradoxum</i> North American species of moonwort

Botrychium paradoxum is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common name peculiar moonwort. It is native to North America, where there are scattered occurrences in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Argyrochosma connectens is a small cheilanthoid fern endemic to Sichuan, China. It is the only member of its genus known from Asia. Relatively rare, it is found growing in the crevices of limestone rocks in hot, dry valleys. The species was long classified in the genus Pellaea, but after a phylogenetic study in 2015 was transferred to Argyrochosma.

References

  1. ↑ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0 - Botrychium virginianum Rattlesnake Fern". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  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. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.19.1.2.
  3. ↑ NRCS. "Botrychium virginianum". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.
  4. ↑ Rhoads, Ann; Block, Timothy (5 September 2007). The Plants of Pennsylvania (2 ed.). Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania press. ISBN   978-0-8122-4003-0.
  5. ↑ "Botrychium virginianum". www.efloras.org. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Ethnobotanical Leaflets Archived 2012-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Davis, C. C., et al. 2005. Gene transfer from a parasitic flowering plant to a fern. Archived 2008-09-08 at the Wayback Machine Proc. R. Soc. B 272, 2237–2242.
  8. ↑ Cobb, Farsworth & Lowe, Ferns of Northeastern North America 2nd edition, p. 247 (2005)
  9. ↑ NRCS. "B. virginianum". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 27 Dec 2011.
  10. ↑ B. virginianum Flora of North America, www.eFloras.org 26 Dec 2011
  11. ↑ Hauk, Warren D.; Parks, Clifford R.; Chase, Mark W. (2003). "Phylogenetic studies of Ophioglossaceae: evidence from rbcL and trnL-F plastid DNA sequences and morphology". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 28 (1): 131–151. Bibcode:2003MolPE..28..131H. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00032-0. ISSN   1055-7903. PMID   12801476.
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