Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Botrychium

Copy permalink to share

1 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) leaflets linear to narrow-ovate, the apex obtuse to acuminate, the margins shallowly to deeply lobed; at least the tip of the sterile leaf blade (trophophore) reflexed in bud.
  2 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) deltate (widest at base), with 3 axes, usually ± sessile; fertile leaf (sporophore) reflexed in bud
  2 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) oblong to ovate, with 1 main axis, usually stalked; fertile leaf (sporophore) mainly erect in bud, only the very tip curved over
1 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) leaflets nearly orbicular to obovate or flabellate, the apex rounded to truncate, the margins entire or distally few-lobed; sterile leaf blade (trophophore) and fertile leaf (sporophore) erect in bud or only the extreme tip of the sterile leaf blade (trophophore) slightly inclined.
    3 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) usually with evident lobes, the first and second pairs of leaflets separated by a similar or slightly longer distance than the second and third pairs of leaflets.
      4 Lowest pair of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) leaflets slightly, if at all, larger and more cleft or lobed than next apical pair; sterile leaf blades (trophophores) typically with small, narrow-flabellate terminal segments
      4 Lowest pair of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) leaflets (or lobes in dwarf individuals) obviously larger and more complex in most plants then next apical pair; many sterile leaf blades (trophophores) with a characteristically broad, rounded to obtuse, terminal segment
    3 Sterile leaf blade (trophophore) very slender and simple to obscurely lobed or with evident lobes, in the latter case usually with a greater distance between the first and second pairs of leaflets than between the second and third pairs of leaflets counting from the base.
        5 Lowest pair of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) lobes or leaflets, when present, often noticeably larger and more complex than the next apical pair; lobes varying from oblong to flabellate to reniform; stalk of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) usually borne near base of plant (sometimes toward mid-height); [primarily of open areas such as fields, shores, and banks]
        5 Lowest pair of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) lobes or leaflets, when present, not obviously larger than the next apical pair; lobes on well-developed plants usually square-oblong to obovate-oblong; stalk of sterile leaf blade (trophophore) inserted high on common stalk, usually at or above mid-height of plant; [primarily of forested wetlands]
Cite as...