A Few Indiana Ferns, Part 3

The strange little ferns shown below are members of Ophioglossaceae, the Adder's Tongue Fern family. Many are highly variable and subject to much disagreement in nomenclature and identification.

Botrychium simplex?, Least Grape Fern

This very tiny fern was growing in thin woods along the edge of an open marsh. It is possibly Botrychium simplex, or conceivably could be a diminutive B. matricariaefolium (see below). Both species are highly variable. I am led to call it B. simplex mainly because of the absence of a midrib on the pinnae (lateral lobes of the blade).

Botrychium matricariaefolium, Daisyleaf Grape Fern

The specific epithet is also spelled matricariifolium. This curious little fern seems to be expanding its range in recent years. Once rare, it is becoming somewhat frequent in wooded areas. It has a special affinity for young Red Maple thickets that develop in formerly open areas. Its morphology is outlandishly variable.

Botrychium virginianum, Rattlesnake Fern

This is one of the few Botrychium ferns that is easy to identify. It's leaves are thin where most other Botrychiums are thick and leathery. It's blade is always triangular in outline, and it is much larger than the other Botrychiums. It is common in a variety of quality woodlands and even degraded woodlands. The reason for the common name is unclear.

Botrychium dissectum var. obliquum?, Oblique Grape Fern

This fern is somewhat common in northern Indiana, emerging in late summer or fall and persisting through the winter. Botrychium dissectum and its varieties are extremely variable; their nomenclature is caught in a never ending flux. I would be very surprised to find 3 or 4 authors who treat them the same, hence the question mark.

Ophioglossum vulgatum, Southern Adder's Tongue Fern

This small fern was photographed in deep shade in a hilly forest between the Salamonie and Wabash Rivers in central Indiana. The colony was discovered by Scott Namestnik.

Ophioglossum pusillum, Northern Adder's Tongue Fern

This inconspicuous little plant is somewhat easy to find in quality wet prairie remnants. It has a special affinity for the shade beneath large masses of Cinnamon Fern and Royal Fern in wet sand prairie. It is worth noting that it was an associate of the remarkable Thismia americana on the south side of Chicago.

January Botany + Plant Quiz

Of course, working on tree bud and bark identification this time of year is fun and all, but it still makes me want a little green. So I decided to see what was green and herbaceous at my local (Central Indiana) woods. Here is a selection of eight that I found. Some of these plants I am pretty sure of, some I think I know, and some I have no clue and would appreciate any help. (Although time should tell.)

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Interesting Little Forest

Does this young forest look mundane? Uninteresting?

It’s quite the opposite!

At a fraction of an acre, it occupies a little corner in a long-abandoned ag field in St. Joe County, Indiana – out of cultivation for at least 30 years. Most of the surrounding land is yellow clay at the surface, and forests in the vicinity are Beech-Sugar Maple. But this little corner is dominated by Red Maple, with occasional Black Cherry and Sassafras on a sandy substrate. Unlike other Red Maple forests, this one is not in a low lying flat, but upland. The sand is almost certainly underlain with clay, keeping moisture at the surface for long periods of time.

When Red Maple forests aren’t too shady the herbaceous vegetation can be pretty exciting, especially if you like ferns, club mosses, and sedges. I first botanized this site in 1997 and found hundreds of Daisyleaf Grape Ferns (Botrychium matricariaefolium).

In 2008 I was startled to find Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) and Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata).

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain Orchid (Goodyera pubescens)

Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata)

Last week I went there to photograph Botrychium dissectum and its segregates and was fortunate to see a tiny Spiranthes orchid in seed. Its identification is guesswork, but diminutive Spiranthes ovalis is a possibility.


On the same visit I saw the lovely Shining Club Moss (Lycopodium lucidulum)!
Interestingly, the club moss was growing right at the base of a tree where water gets funneled when it rains. If you’ve never observed this, it’s worth donning a rain suit and going into the forest while it’s raining. All of the water that doesn’t drip from a tree’s limbs or get absorbed by the bark gets funneled right down the trunk, and even during moderate rain, water comes gushing down. Some plants take advantage of this. For example, Spinulose Wood Fern (Dryopteris spinulosa) will grow anywhere in mesic and wet forests, but in dryer sites it survives at the base of tree trunks. Watch for this – it’s a common sight, at least in northern Indiana. Dryopteris intermedia does this too, as shown in this photo from Warren Woods in Michigan. We should keep this in mind when doing native landscaping. And we should never pass up a chance to botanize a Red Maple forest!

Florist's Fern (Dryopteris intermedia)

Botrychium matricariifolium, Daisyleaf Grape Fern

Also spelled Botrychium matricariaefolium. This peculiar little fern grows in several places in northern Indiana - more abundantly and widespread than published maps indicate. It is probably missed by botanists because it grows in degraded woods, and in very young stick forests where saplings are so thick it's difficult to walk between them. It does occasionally show up in high quality forested sites. Photographed May 10, 2009 at Potato Creek State Park in St. Joseph County.

A similar, smaller species, Botrychium simplex, occurs rarely in the Dunes region. It differs in having the blade pinnatifid (that of B. matricariifolium is bipinnatifid, approaching pinnate-pinnatifid),and its blade lacks the prominent, wide midrib that B. matricariifolium has. Also, its sporophyll is not as noticeably branched (branches are short to obsolete).