Botrychium boreale (Fr.) Milde
Family: Ophioglossaceae
Northern Moonwort
[Botrychium boreale subsp. boreale ]
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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.

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

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