notes These plants were initially spotted by Dylan Neubauer on a field trip with Jim Morefield, Dylan, Steve Matson, Neal Kramer, Jean Marie Acceturo, and myself. Subsequently a number were found growing in the same large, moist, meadow (about 0.7 km WNW of this record)...where they were typically obscured under tussocks of graminoids and other plants. I initially tried to ID these from my photos using the 2006 ''Systematics of Moonworts: Botrychium subgenus Botrychium'' by Donald R. Farrar. Pages 6-11 of that paper provide a good introduction to terminology and characters for IDing Botrychium, as well by an illustrated species table and keys. Using the 'key to western species' on pg. 15 therein took me (at 'couplet 20') to B. lunaria.
But the plant list Jim Morefield supplied us with listed B. crenulatum with the annotation that the name B. lunaria had previously been misapplied to those plants. Indeed, both the Farrar key and the FNA key used (among other things) the character ''pinnae well-separated vs. pinnae overlapping'' to separate B. crenulatum and B. lunaria, respectively. Since the pinnae are somewhat overlapping here, Farrar's 2006 key yielded a result of B. lunaria...but the additional characters in couplet 18 of the FNA key (plants herbaceous, of damp sites for crenulatum vs. plants fleshy, of dry sites for lunaria) pointed to an ID of B. crenulatum!
Indeed, in the current Jepson eFlora Botrychium key, species crenulatum keys out twice under lead 9 (with ''pinnae touching to overlapping'') or under lead 9' (''pinnae generally well-spaced to touching ''). Apparently the character of ''pinnae well-separated vs. overlapping'' is variable here, either between individuals or depending on early vs. late phenology...or both? (Cf. Dylan's 2012 post from nearby.) The taxonomy of this genus has undergone significant progress in recent years, and all my poking through older treatments clarified how the name B. lunaria had come to be misapplied to what is currently considered B. crenulatum. It was reassuring to find descriptions and images that are compatible with the plants in my post here at this B. crenulatum link.
Finally, it's of interest to note that Farrar has an updated 2011 paper entitled ''Systematics and Taxonomy of Genus Botrychium'' (although, unfortunately, it lacks the keys and illustrated species tables of the 2006 version). And at the bottom of pg. 2 of that document, Farrar explains that (based on the work in the Ph.D. thesis here) his former student, Mary Stensvold, plans to publish in the near future the new combination Botrychium lunaria var. crenulatum to replace the current name of B. crenulatum. (So soon the checklist name B. crenulatum will also become ''misapplied'' :-)
The original 1981 description of B. crenulatum by W. H. Wagner can be read here.
