Habit: Roots smooth, pale yellow, without bulblets or plantlets.
Leaf: deciduous; bud glabrous; sporophore and trophophore (or 2 sporophores) joined at or well above ground level; trophophore generally 1--2-pinnate (simple or entire or 0), linear to deltate to ternately triangular, thin to fleshy, pinnae ovate to oblong and midribbed or wedge- to fan-shaped and not midribbed, veins free, forked; sporophore 1--2-pinnate, rarely absent.
Sporangia: not sunken in axis; stalk 0 or short.
Species In Genus: 25--35 species: generally temperate to arctic or alpine.
Etymology: (Greek: bunch of grapes, from clusters of sporangia)
Note: Difficult, needs study; most species uncommon, sporadic; good sampling of populations highly desirable in specimens, which must be carefully spread and pressed for identification.
Botrychium multifidum moved to
Sceptridium.
Botrychium pedunculosum W.H. Wagner, differing from
Botrychium pinnatum in having trophophore stalk +- = trophophore rachis (vs trophophore stalk 0 to 1/10 trophophore rachis), recently confirmed for California, based on discovery in summer of 2010 near Reynolds Creek, western of Yosemite National Park, Calaveras Co.
Jepson eFlora Author: Donald R. Farrar
Reference: Stensvold 2007 Ph.D. Dissertation, Iowa State Univ; Wagner & Wagner 1993 FNANM 2:85--106
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Botrychium
Previous taxon: OphioglossaceaeNext taxon: Botrychium ascendens