(5) Common Grape Fern
Botrychium Oblìquum. Botrychium Ternàtum, Var. Oblìquum
Botrychium Disséctum, Var. Oblìquum
Rootstock short, its base including the buds of succeeding years. Fronds two to twelve inches or more high. Leafy or sterile segment triangular, ternate, long-petioled, springing from near the base of the plant, and spreading horizontally. From the main leafstock grow several pairs of stalked pinnæ, with the divisions ovate-oblong, acutish, crenate-serrulate, obliquely cordate or subcordate. Fertile segment taller, erect, about three times pinnate, maturing its fruit in autumn. Occasionally two or three fertile spikes grow on the same plant. In vernation the apex of each segment is bent down with a slight curve inward.
New England to Virginia, westward to Minnesota and southward.
Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum. Similar to the type, but with the divisions very finely dissected or incisely many-toothed, the most beautiful of all the grape ferns. There is considerable variety in the cutting of the fronds. Maine to Florida and westward.
Botrychium oblìquum, var. oneidénse. Ultimate segments oblong, rounded at the apex, crenulate-serrate, less divided than any of the others and, perhaps, less common. Vermont to Central New York.
Botrychium oblìquum, var. elongàtum. Divisions lanceolate, elongated, acute.
Note: A Botrychium not uncommon in Georgia and Alabama, named by Swartz B. lunarioides, deserves careful study. It is known as the “Southern Botrychium.”