Species: Botrychium ascendens
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Upward-lobed Moonwort is a small, perennial fern with a single aboveground frond. The frond is usually about 10 cm tall, yellow-green, and divided into two segments which share a common stalk. The mostly sterile segment is once pinnatifid with up to six pairs of strongly ascending, narrowly triangular pinnae which have deeply lacerate margins. The sterile segment often has a few sporangia on the margins of the pinnae or on small branches. The fertile segment is longer than the sterile segment, is branched, and bears grape-like sporangia. Spores germinate underground and develop into minute, subterranean, non-photosynthetic gametophytes which depend on an endophytic fungus for nourishment.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life
Classification
Ophioglossopsida
Ophioglossales
Ophioglossaceae
Botrychium
NatureServe
Classification
Ecology and Life History
Upward-lobed Moonwort is a small, perennial fern with a single aboveground frond. The frond is usually about 10 cm tall, yellow-green, and divided into two segments which share a common stalk. The mostly sterile segment is once pinnatifid with up to six pairs of strongly ascending, narrowly triangular pinnae which have deeply lacerate margins. The sterile segment often has a few sporangia on the margins of the pinnae or on small branches. The fertile segment is longer than the sterile segment, is branched, and bears grape-like sporangia. Spores germinate underground and develop into minute, subterranean, non-photosynthetic gametophytes which depend on an endophytic fungus for nourishment.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life