Botrychium lanceolatum.Erik Danielsen.NFEUS.S.I., New York City.4.2016 (Accessed 4/2016).

Botrychium lanceolatum is a small Fern, fleshy, unbranched, with a single stalkless leaf, deciduous. From an underground stem associated with mycorrhizal fungi. Plants 6-25 (40) cm tall, hairless.

Leaf: Dark green, blade appearing more than halfway up the stem, stalks of pinnae none (sessile) or to only 0.6 cm long, blade more-or-less triangular in outline, 1-6 x 1-9 cm, pinnae 2-5 pairs, each pinnately divided (pinnatifid), the lowest pair larger than the others, segments lance-shaped in outline, margins lobed and divided.

Flowers: None.  Stalk of Spore bearing leaf (sporophyll) 1-4.5 cm long, branches ascending, blade 1.5-9 cm long, twice pinnate. Spore cases (sporangia) 1 mm wide, crowded along short branches.

Fruit: None. Spores.

Wetland status: FACW. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Habitat: Open moist to wet woods, acid soil.