INTRODUCTION 



Botrychium paradoxum Wagner was first described based on 

 nine plants collected from a meadow on the shore of Storm Lake 

 on the Deerlodge National Forest, in Deerlodge County, Montana 

 (Wagner and Wagner 1981) . Plants could not be found at the 

 type locality in searches conducted in 1985 by Peter Lesica, 

 but were rediscovered and surveyed by the Deerlodge National 

 Forest botanist, Susan Rinehart, and others (Dana Field, John 

 Harmann, Sherry Vogel) in 1992. 



B. paradoxum, commonly called peculiar or leafless 

 moonwort, is in the Ophioglossaceae, a family of primitive 

 ferns (sometimes considered fern allies) . Moonworts have 

 their center of diversity in the mountains of western North 

 America (Wagner and Wagner 1983). They are usually 

 characterized morphologically by a single sterile frond 

 (trophophore) and a single fertile frond (sporophore) , 

 however, B. paradoxum possesses two sporophores but no 

 trophophore. Moonworts are minute plants which are easily 

 overlooked by botanists and other field workers. 



Prior to 1993, four very small populations of this 

 species were known from Montana and included in the Biological 

 Conservation Database maintained by the Montana Natural 

 Heritage Program: 1) Storm Lake with 2 0+ plants counted 2) 

 Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park with 2, 3) East of 

 Marias Pass near the Glacier-Pondera County line with 45, and 

 4) Our Lake in the Front Range in Teton County with 30. The 

 current status of the Swiftcurrent site is unknown, the Marias 

 Pass population has been unsuccessfully sought, and the Our 

 Lake population is being studied by the Lewis and Clark 

 National Forest. In addition, verification is pending of a 

 reported 1993 collection made of this species in Kootenai 

 National Forest (Leavell pers. commun.). Outside of Montana, 

 the species is known from southern Utah (Wagner et al. 1984) , 

 northeastern Oregon (W. Wagner, pers. commun.) and Alberta, 

 British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, Canada (Argus and Pryor 

 1990) . 



The Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTHP) maintains a 

 list of Montana Plant Species of Special Concern (Heidel and 

 Poole 1993) in which B. paradoxum is categorized as Gl and SI, 

 meaning that the species is "critically imperiled due to 

 extreme rarity," both globally and within the state. The 

 U.S. D.I. Fish and Wildlife Service (1993) designates the 

 species as C2 , indicating that more information is needed to 

 justify either listing as endangered or threatened, or removal 

 from consideration. The U.S. Forest Service lists the species 

 as "sensitive" (USDA Forest Service 1989) . 



