Species: Botrychium montanum
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Mountain Moonwort is a small perennial fern with a single aboveground frond. The frond varies in height but may reach a height of 12 cm. It is a dull, glaucous gray-green, somewhat succulent, and divided into two segments which share a relatively short common stalk. The sterile segment is once pinnatifid with well separated, irregular, angular, ascending lobes with entire or toothed margins. 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
Mountain Moonwort is a small perennial fern with a single aboveground frond. The frond varies in height but may reach a height of 12 cm. It is a dull, glaucous gray-green, somewhat succulent, and divided into two segments which share a relatively short common stalk. The sterile segment is once pinnatifid with well separated, irregular, angular, ascending lobes with entire or toothed margins. 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