Image of rattlesnake fern

Description:

Slo.: virginijska mladomeseina - syn.: Osmunda virginiana L. - Habitat: Riverine forest of river Soa, dense thicket in light mixed wood, Salix eleagnos, Picea abies dominant trees (Lamioorvalae-Salicetum eleagni s.lat. Dakskobler, ilc & uin) (Ref.:4.); calcareous alluvial ground, flat terrain; humid place, in shade; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies; elevation 430 m (1.410 feet), average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comments: Botrychium virginianum had been long time on my wish list. In spite of the fact that I was told in which wood to search, I've had no success in finding it for several years. This year it finally happened. We found a rich stand of several tens of plants in their best shape plus many young ones without fertile leaf. - Botrychium virginianum is widely distributed North American-Euro Siberian fern distributed in Europe in (mostly east part of) the Alps and the Carpathians. It is a rare to very rare, everywhere protected plant growing in montane to subalpine elevations of the Alps in Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. In Switzerland it is very rarely found and marked in the state's red list as 'before extinction or already extinct' (Ref.:6.). - Botrychium virginianumis a tender, all green plant growing on secluded places, in mountain forests in narrow dark gorges and riverine woods. It is usually well hidden in deep green ground thickets (see picture 10.) No wonder, it is not easy to spot it. When mature it has two leaves. Green and sterile leaf, which is three to four times pinnate and a yellowish-green fertile leaf, which is two to three times pinnate, baring round sporangia and producing spores. - Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by 'R' representing a rare species. - Ref.: (1) Personal communication with Dr. Igor Dakskobler, Institute Jovan Hadi, SAZU (Slovenia Academy of Science and Art) and Mr. Branko Dolinar. (2) M.A.Fischer, W.Adler, K.Oswald, Exkursionsflora sterreich Liechtenstein, Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 233. (3) A.Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007) (in Slovenian), p 88. (4) I. Dakskobler, Phytosociological and floristic Analysis of Riverine Forests in the Soa Valley, Dissertationes classis Historia Naturalis IV., XLVIII-2, SAZU (2007), pp 25-138. (5) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 64. (6) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 48.