RATTLESNAKE FERN
File Size: 141 KB
 
Botrychium virginianum   (L. ) Sw.
Marion County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: To 20+ inches
Family: Ophioglossaceae - Adder's Tongue Family
Flowering Period:  
Culms: Stems upright from fleshy roots
Leaves: Blades pale green, 3 to 4 times pinnately compound, 10-13+ inches long; pinnae to 12 pairs, slightly ascending, lanceolate; pinnules sessile, lanceolate, to 8 inches long and 12 inches broad, deeply lobed, lobes linear, dissected or toothed, midrib present, tip acute; fertile spike up to 8 inches long, arising from base of vegetative leaf blade (from common petiole); sporangia round, 1/50 to 1/25 inch diameter; spores yellowish, shedding May-July.
Habitat: Dry or moist woods
Distribution: East 2/5 of Kansas
Origin: Native
Reproduction: Ferns reproduce by spores rather than true flowers.
Comments: Rattlesnake fern is the most widespread Botrychium in North America. New leaves develop in the spring and wither by late summer. From Latin botry, bunch of grapes and oides resembling, alluding to the sporangial clusters.

Rattlesnake fern blade
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern pinnules
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern sporangia
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern sporangia
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern
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Riley County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern inflorescence
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Marion County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern inflorescence
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Marion County, Kansas
Rattlesnake fern leaves
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Marion County, Kansas