Botrychium lunaria

The moon is a symbol for fertility. Young moonwort plants evolve in pits at the foot of the adult plant. This display of fertility is reason enough to name the plant after the moon. The leaf resembles a key. In olden days, one believed that this key opened ports to the underworld. The plant has one leaf containing spores and one leaf without. Moonwort grows in the dunes on northern slopes, where it stays relatively cool and damp on hot dry days. It is often found in the shadow between creeping willow and sheep fescue, or in heath lands and grasslands.

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw.:
China (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; s South America; Eurasia; Pacific Islands in New Zealand; Australia.

Global Range: Botrychium lunaria appears in North and South America, Eurasia, Australia, and New Zealand. In North America it occurs from Newfoundland and Labrador west to Alaska, and south to Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Trophophore stalk 0--1 mm; blade dark green, oblong, 1-pinnate, to 10 × 4 cm, thick, fleshy. Pinnae to 9 pairs, spreading, mostly overlapping except in shaded forest forms, 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, broadly fan-shaped, undivided to tip, margins mainly entire or undulate, rarely dentate, apical lobe usually cuneate to spatulate, notched, approximate to adjacent lobes, apex rounded, venation like ribs of fan, midribs absent. Sporophores 1--2-pinnate, 0.8--2 times length of trophophore. 2 n =90.

Osmunda lunaria Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1064. 1753; Botrychium onondagense L.Underwood

Leaves appearing in spring, dying in latter half of summer. Open fields, occasionally forests in southern occurrences; 0--3700m.

Comments: Botrychium lunaria generally occurs on calcareous soils in the sunlight of open fields, wood edges, and occasionally forests in the southern parts of its range. It may also occur on rocky banks or gravelly ledges.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 7
Specimens with Barcodes: 17
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N4 - Apparently Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Although Botrychium lunaria can be locally rare, it is common across a very broad geographic range.

Global Short Term Trend: Relatively stable (=10% change)

Comments: The primary threat to Botrychium lunaria is the loss of its open habitats to successional overgrowth.

Biological Research Needs: This is the best-known of the Botrychium species.