Grape Ferns
Botrýchium
Rootstock very short, erect with clustered fleshy roots; the base of the sheathed stalk containing the bud for the next year’s frond. Fertile frond one to three pinnate, the contracted divisions bearing a double row of sessile, naked, globular sporangia, opening transversely into two valves. Sterile segment of the frond ternately or pinnately divided or compound. Veins free. Spores copious, sulphur yellow. (The name in Greek means a cluster of grapes, alluding to the grape-like clusters of the sporangia.)