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Botrychium echo

(Reflected Grape Fern)

Overview

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Vulnerable

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Reflected Grape Fern, Echo Moonwort, Reflected Grapefern, Reflected Moonwort

Description

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Family Ophioglossaceae

Plants perennials , terrestrial or epiphytic. Roots lacking root hairs , unbranched or with a few narrow lateral branches, in 1 species dichotomously branched. Stems simple , unbranched, upright, with eustelic vascular tissue. Leaf bases dilated , clasping , forming sheath , open or fused, surrounding successive leaf primordia; primordia glabrous or with long, uniseriate hairs . Leaves 1(--2) per stem, with common stalk divided into sterile , laminate , photosynthetic portion (trophophore) and fertile , spore-bearing portion (sporophore ) . Trophophore blades compound to simple, rarely absent, veins anastomosing or free , pinnate, or arranged like ribs of fan. Indument absent or of widely scattered , long, uniseriate hairs, especially on petioles and rachises. Sporophores pinnately branched or simple. Sporangia exposed or embedded , 0.5--1.5 mm diam., thick-walled, with thousands of spores. Spores all 1 kind, trilete, thick-walled, surface rugate, tuberculate , baculate (with projecting rods usually higher than wide), sometimes joined in delicate network , mostly with ± warty surface. Gametophytes not green, usually fleshy , round or linear , subterranean , mycorrhizal.

Genera 5, species ca. 70--80 (3 genera, 38 species in the flora ) : nearly worldwide.

Ophioglossaceae comprise two clearly defined subfamilies, Botrychioideae and Ophioglossoideae, which are sometimes recognized as distinct families. Ophioglossaceae may be only distantly related to the ferns and more closely related to Marattiales and certain seedplants, especially Cycadales, in such characteristics as stelar type, cork cambium , dilated leaf bases, conduplicate vernation , intercalary leaf growth, collateral leaf traces , circular-bordered pits, eusporangia, massive gametophytes, sunken archegonia, and presence in some species of endoscopic embryos.[1]

Genus Botrychium

Plants terrestrial . Roots occasionally branching laterally, yellowish to black, 0.5--2 mm diam., smooth or with corky ridges , not proliferous. Stems upright, forming caudex to 5 mm thick; gemmae absent or minute, spheric. Trophophores ascending to perpendicular to stem, sessile or stalked ; blades linear , oblong , or deltate, simple to 5-pinnate, 4--25 × 1--35 cm. Pinnae (reduced to segments in many species) spreading to ascending, fan-shaped to lanceolate to linear; margins entire to dentate to lacerate , apex rounded or acute; veins free , arranged like ribs of fan or pinnate. Sporophores normally 1 per leaf, 1--3-pinnate, long-stalked, borne at ground level to high on common stalk . Sporangial clusters with sporangia sessile to short-stalked, almost completely exposed, borne in 2 rows on pinnate (except in very small plants) sporophore branches. Gametophytes broadly ovate , unbranched, 1--3 × 1--10 mm. x =44, 45, 92.

Species 50--60: nearly worldwide.

The greatest diversity in Botrychium is at high latitudes and high elevations , mostly in disturbed meadows and woods . Extensive field and laboratory research has revealed unexpected diversity in North America, especially in subg. Botrychium. For accurate identification, a substantial number of carefully spread and pressed leaves are usually needed because of the large amount of variation found in most species. Taking many samples will have little effect on the population as long as the underground shoots and roots are left intact. Approximately a dozen sterile hybrid combinations have been encountered, but they are very infrequent.

The range maps south of Canada reflect mostly local occurrences at high elevations (1000--3700 m ) in the mountains. The ranges for many of the species are probably more extensive and continuous than indicated by our present knowledge.[2]

Physical Description

Species Botrychium echo

Trophophore stalk 0--4 mm; blade shiny green, broadly oblong to oblong-deltate, 1--2-pinnate, to 4 × 3cm, firm. Pinnae to 4 pairs, spreading or only moderately ascending , well separated, 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, oblanceolate to linear-spatulate, ± parallel-sided, divided to tip , shallowly lobed or rarely 2-cleft, basal pinna cleft into single basiscopic projection and large acroscopic projection, margins entire, apex acute, venation pinnate. Sporophores 1--2 pinnate, 1--2 times length of trophophore rachis. 2 n =180. Leaves appearing in June, dying in September. [source]

Botrychium echo is one of four moonwort species that commonly produce clusters of minute, spheric gemmae at the root bases . This species tends to have a reddish brown stripe along the common stalk from the base of the trophophore stalk. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Habitat

Grassy mountain slopes , snow fields , road ditches, and sand dunes; of conservation concern; 2500--3700 m [3].

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Botrychium

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 41 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. acuminatum (Moonwort) · B. ascendens (Trianglelobe Moonwort) · B. biternatum (Southern Grapefern) · B. boreale (North-Western Moonwort) · B. campestre (Iowa Moonwort) · B. crenulatum (Crenulate Moonwort) · B. dissectum (Cut-Leaf Grape Fern) · B. echo (Reflected Grape Fern) · B. gallicomontanum (Frenchman's Bluff Grapefern) · B. hesperium (Western Moonwort) · B. jenmanii (Alabama Grape Fern) · B. lanceolatum (Lance-Leaf Moonwort) · B. lanceolatum angustisegmentum (Lanceleaf Grapefern) · B. lanceolatum var. angustisegmentum (Lanceleaf Grapefern) · B. lanceolatum var. lanceolatum (Lance-Leaved Moonwort) · B. lineare (Narrowleaf Grapefern) · B. lunaria (Common Moonwort) · B. lunarioides (Winter Grape-Fern) · B. matricariifolium (Chamomile Grape-Fern) · B. minganense (Mingan Island Grapefern) · B. montanum (Mountain Moonwort) · B. mormo (Little Goblin Moonwort) · B. multifidum (Broadleaf Grapefern) · B. oneidense (Blunt-Lobe Grape-Fern) · B. pallidum (Pale Botrychium) · B. paradoxum (Peculiar Moonwort) · B. pedunculosum (Stalked Moonwort) · B. pinnatum (Northern Grapefern) · B. pseudopinnatum (False Daisyleaf Moonwort) · B. pumicola (Crater Lake Grapefern) · B. robustum (Leathery Grapefern) · B. rugulosum (Rugulose Grape-Fern) · B. simplex (Least Grape-Fern) · B. simplex var. simplex (Little Grapefern) · B. spathulatum (Spathulate Botrychium) · B. subbifoliatum (Island Grapefern) · B. virginianum (Rattlesnake Fern) · B. watertonense (Waterton Grapefern) · B. boreale (Scott's Spleenwort) · B. × watertonense (Waterton Grapefern) · B. zeylanicum (Kamraj)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Warren H. Wagner Jr., Florence S. Wagner "Ophioglossaceae". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Warren H. Wagner Jr., Florence S. Wagner "Botrychium". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Botrychium echo". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012