Botrychium neolunaria

Flora of Oregon

Originally published in Flora of Oregon as Botrychium lunaria.

Plants 4–20 cm tall above ground.

Common stalks well developed, greater than 2 cm, green.

Trophophore sessile or occasionally with a stalk to 1 cm long; blade 1-pinnate, oblong, to 10 × 4 cm, grass-green, not glaucous; pinnae to 9 pairs, usually overlapping except in shaded plants, lower pinnae spreading at nearly a right angle to rachis, fan-shaped, spanning an arc of (120)150–180°, broadest at the outer margin, entire to undulate, upper pinnae fanshaped, usually with upper margin ascending and lower margin spreading to form an arc of 90–150°.

Sporophore erect, stalk (0.5)1–2 times as long as the trophophore at spore release, branches spreading to ascending, usually arranged on 1 side of stalk to form a triangular flag.

Spores 33–39 μm.

2n =90.

Mesic meadows at upper montane to subalpine elevations, occasionally on sparsely vegetated scree. 1500–2800 m. BR, BW. CA, ID, NV, WA; throughout most of Canada and the northern and western US; Australia, Eurasia, New Zealand. Native.

North American plants of B. neolunaria are genetically distinct from Eurasian plants. The tetraploid between these two lineages, B. yaaxudakeit Stensvold & Farrar, is known from northeastern Oregon. It has larger spores (43–48 μm) but is otherwise morphologically indistinguishable from B. neolunaria.

Flora of North America

as described under Botrychium lunaria

Trophophore stalk 0--1 mm; blade dark green, oblong, 1-pinnate, to 10 × 4 cm, thick, fleshy. Pinnae to 9 pairs, spreading, mostly overlapping except in shaded forest forms, distance between 1st and 2d pinnae not or slightly more than between 2d and 3d pairs, basal pinna pair approximately equal in size and cutting to adjacent pair, broadly fan-shaped, undivided to tip, margins mainly entire or undulate, rarely dentate, apical lobe usually cuneate to spatulate, notched, approximate to adjacent lobes, apex rounded, venation like ribs of fan, midribs absent. Sporophores 1--2-pinnate, 0.8--2 times length of trophophore. 2 n =90.Leaves appearing in spring, dying in latter half of summer. Open fields, occasionally forests in southern occurrences; 0--3700 m; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; s South America; Eurasia; Pacific Islands in New Zealand; Australia.Botrychium lunaria grows with many other species of Botrychium , occasionally hybridizing with them. This species, geographically the most widespread of the moonworts, has notably uniform morphology.

Herbarium specimens

https://www.pnwherbaria.org/images/thumbnail.php?Image=WTU-V-008819.jpg
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https://www.pnwherbaria.org/images/thumbnail.php?Image=HPSU014440.jpg
https://botanydb.colorado.edu/COLO_V/00987/00987057_tn.jpg