Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Botrychium virginianum (L.) Swartz
- Family: Adder's-tongue Fern (Ophioglossaceae)
- Spores: September-November
- Field Marks: This fern, which dies back during the winter, has a basic triangular shape. The reproductive bodies are borne on stalks which arise directly from the leaf stalks.
- Habitat: Woodlands, ravines.
- Habit: Perennial fern from short rootstocks and usually fleshy roots.
- Stems: Stems underground, short, thick, erect.
- Leaves: Solitary, arising from the underground rootstock, basically triangular in shape, rather thin, the segments once- or twice-divided, smooth, up to 1 1/2 feet long.
- Reproductive Structures: Spores borne in round sori clustered at the tip of a stalk that rises directly from the leaf stalk.
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