Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Narrow Triangle Moonwort - Botrychium angustisegmentum   (Pease & A.H. Moore) Fernald
Members of Ophioglossaceae:
Members of Botrychium with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 2 » Family Ophioglossaceae
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Author(Pease & A.H. Moore) Fernald
DistributionKnown from just three counties in the Piedmont foothills (South Mountains) and in the southern Mountains (Macon County). Oddly, if not disturbingly, SERNEC lists no collections for this species. Considering that it is very rare in VA (in the Mountains), the reports from the western Piedmont may well be open to question. Collections of this species in NC are sorely needed.

This is a Northern species, ranging across much of southern Canada south to VA, NC, OH, MI, MN, and MT. Records from southward in the Rocky Mountains belong to B. lanceolatum sensu stricto.
AbundanceVery rare, with most sightings from the South Mountains. The NCNHP database lists a whopping nine records, some likely not truly separate locations -- and with no known specimens, some are probably open to question of identity. This is a Significantly Rare species.
HabitatIn NC, it is reported from cove forests and other moist or rich forested settings.
PhenologyFruits in July and August.
IdentificationThis is a slender fern, easily overlooked owing to its "tiny" sterile blade. The stipe is about 5-6 inches long, but the triangular-shaped sterile blade is only about 1.5 inches long and wide. It is dark green, glabrous, and pinnate-pinnatifid but has only 2-5 pairs of pinnae, with the basal one the largest. This species has the blades quite thin and not thick and coriaceous like some other moonworts. The lobes of the pinnae are mostly acute at the tip and narrow at the base. The most similar species is B. matricariifolium, which has the tips of the pinnae obtuse to rounded, and the sterile blade is obviously stalked (as opposed to sessile in B. angustisegmentum). The fertile blade of the genus is reduced and held far above the sterile blade.
Taxonomic CommentsThis species is included as a variety or subspecies of B. lanceolatum in most references. But, Weakley (2018) says that B. angustisegmentum is an Eastern taxon/species, and that B. lanceolatum (strict sense) is widespread in western North America.

Other Common Name(s)Lanceleaf Moonwort (the common name for the split out B. lanceolatum -- strict sense)
State RankS1
Global RankG5T4 [G4]
State StatusSR-P
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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B.A. SorrieSunderland, MA, 1980s. Photo_non_NCPhoto_non_NC
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