Northern Moonwort

This well-marked northern Eurasian species is best known in Scandinavia, where it occurs most commonly with Botrychium lunaria , with which it occasionally hybridizes.

Trophophore stalk sessile or nearly so; blade shiny green, ovate-deltate, 1--2-pinnate, to 6 cm, fleshy. Pinnae to 6 pairs, ascending, mostly overlapping, distance between 1st and 2d pinnae only slightly greater than between 2d and 3d pairs, basal pinna pair usually considerably larger than adjacent pair, obliquely rhomboidal to oblanceolate-spatulate, mostly shallowly lobed to rarely pinnate, margins entire to very narrowly shallowly crenulate, apex pointed, venation pinnate only at bases of proximal pinnae, otherwise ± like ribs of fan. Sporophores 1--2-pinnate, 1--1.5 times length of trophophore.

Greenland.

Leaves appearing in July and August. Dry meadows, south-facing slopes; 200--600m.

Botrychium boreale Milde, Bot. Zeit. 15: 880. 1857
Botrychium crassinervmm Rupr.; Milde, Nova Acta Acad. I,eop.-Carol. 26: 763. 1858.
Plant usually stout, 6-19.5 cm. high; rhizome slender, erect; bud smooth, entirely enclosed ; leaf erect, the commonstalk mostly epigean, 3-11 cm. high, the lamina with the apex bent down but not clasping the sporophyl in vernation, sessile, oblong-ovate to deltoid-ovate, 1.4-5.5 cm. long, 1.4-5.3 cm. broad, usually only once pinnately divided, the divisions close, fan-shaped to broadly rhombic or deltoid, acutely or obtusely cuneate below, acutish above, entire or incised, or rarely with the lowest divisions pinnately lobed with broad, oblong or ovate to rhombic lobes; sporophyl erect in vernation, 1.5-5.5 cm. long, usually exceeding the lamina very little, the panicle compact.
Type locality : Scandinavia.
Distribution : Alaska ; also in Europe.

Botrychium boreale, commonly called northern moonwort, is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae. It is a short, single leaved rhizome that stands upright.