Sceptridium Explained

Sceptridium is a genus of seedless vascular plants in the family Ophioglossaceae,^[1] closely allied to (and often included as a subgenus^[2] of) the genus Botrychium (the moonworts and grapeferns). It is also closely related to the genus Botrypus (the rattlesnake fern, often treated as the subgenus Osmundopteris under Botrychium). Sceptridium species are commonly called the grape-ferns.

These plants are small with fleshy roots, and reproduce by spores shed into the air. They differ from the moonworts in having at least some sterile fronds (all fronds in Botrychium are spore-bearing), and in the fronds being bi- or tri-pinnate (Botrychium are single pinnate, or rarely bipinnate); and from Botrypus in being evergreen, or at least winter-green (Botrypus are deciduous) and having the non-spore-bearing part of the frond long-stalked (short-stalked in Botrypus).

Phylogeny

Phylogeny of Sceptridium^{[3] [4]} ;width:300px

Unassigned species:

• S. × argutum Sahashi
• S. australe (Brown) Lyon (parsley fern)^{[5] [6]}
• S. biforme (Col.) Lyon (fine-leaved parsley fern)^{[7] [8]}
• S. × elegans Sahashi
• S. javanicum Sahashi
• S. jenmanii (Underwood) Lyon (Alabama grape-fern)^{[9] [10] [11]}
• S. × longistipitatum Sahashi
• S. × pulchrum Sahashi
• S. rugulosum (Wagner) Skoda & Holub (ternate grape-fern, St. Lawrence grape fern, rugulose grape fern)^{[12] [13]}
• S. × silvicola (Sahashi) Ebihara
• S. subbifoliatum (Brack.) Lyon (island grape-fern)^{[14] [15]}
• S. underwoodianum (Maxon) Lyon^{[16] [17]}

Notes and References

1. Christenhusz . Maarten J. M. . Zhang. Xian-Chun . Schneider . Harald . 2011 . A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns . Phytotaxa . 19 . 7–54 . 10.11646/phytotaxa.19.1.2 .
2. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26610815 subgenus
3. Nitta . Joel H. . Schuettpelz . Eric . Ramírez-Barahona . Santiago . Iwasaki . Wataru . et al. . 2022 . An Open and Continuously Updated Fern Tree of Life . Frontiers in Plant Science . 13 . 909768. 10.3389/fpls.2022.909768 . 36092417. 9449725. free.
4. Web site: et al. . 2024 . Tree viewer: interactive visualization of FTOL . FTOL v1.6.0 [GenBank release 259] . 17 October 2024.
5. Kelly. Dave. Demography and conservation of Botrychium australe, a peculiar, sparse mycorrhizal fern. New Zealand Journal of Botany. 1994. 32. 4. 393–400. 10.1080/0028825x.1994.10412925. free. 1994NZJB...32..393K .
6. http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Botrychium+australe B. australe
7. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=17060960-1 B. biforme
8. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=17220050-1 S. biforme
9. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500279 B. jenmanii
10. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26602175 B. jenmanii
11. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26602175?tab=synonyms B. alabamense
12. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26604473 B. rugulosum
13. https://web.archive.org/web/20100610054315/http://wisplants.uwsp.edu/scripts/Detail.asp?Spcode=BOTRUG B. rugulosum
14. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=17061550-1 B. subbifoliatum
15. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=17193 B. subbifoliatum
16. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26608302 B. underwoodianum
17. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26619756 S. underwoodianum