the Deerlodge, other species of moonworts were also found. At 

 Storm Lake, Rinehart (1992) , referring to Hitchcock and 

 Cronquist's (1973) key, recognized four species: B. lunaria 

 var. lunaria, B. lunaria var. onadandagense , B. boreale , and 

 an undetermined species. Although the identification of B. 

 paradoxum is quite straight forward, distinctions between some 

 of the other species are often subtle, and taxonomic 

 treatments vary greatly between floras. The most recent 

 treatment of the genus by the Wagners (1993) is the system 

 adopted here. 



Tentative determinations (after consultation with Wagner 

 and Windham) of my own collections and photographs indicate 

 co-occurences of B. paradoxum with B. lunaria , B. pinnatum 

 (probably the same plant Rinehart called B. boreale), B. 

 minganense , and B. crenulatum; these last two are Montana 

 Plant Species of Special Concern and either could be the 

 plants Rinehart called B. lunaria var. onadandagense. In 

 addition, a strange undescribed plant was collected on Windy 

 Ridge; this is a one fronded Botrychium with very small, but 

 regular spores, which lacks both a trophophore and a second 

 sporophore (slide # 19, Appendix F) . Also at Windy Ridge, 

 Steve Shelly collected B. lunaria and a probable sterile 

 hybrid, morphologically distinguished by the development of 

 sporangia on the margins of the "sterile" lamina, and deformed 

 spores. A similar hybrid (B. X watertonense) between B. 

 paradoxum and B. hesperium , has been described from Alberta 

 (Wagner et al. 1984). Photocopies of all our Botrychium 

 collections with label data are included in this report as 

 Appendix E. Close-up slides of the plants are included in 

 Appendix F. 



To facilitate incorporation of this paper into a future 

 status report on B. paradoxum for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, further information on the Deerlodge National Forest 

 populations is presented here under the standard topic 

 headings of geographic distribution, environment and habitat, 

 population biology, and evidence of threats to survival. The 

 standard format within those headings, however, is not 

 strictly followed. Appropriate information from previous 

 reports on the Storm Lake population, species biology, and 

 other background is presented and cited in these sections 

 along with the results of the current study. 



1. Geographic distribution 



As summarized above, three populations of B. paradoxum 

 are now known from the Deerlodge National Forest. They are 

 located in the northern part of the Anaconda Range, south of 

 Georgetown Lake in Deerlodge and Granite Counties. The 

 population at One Hundred Acre Meadow is mostly within the 

 boundaries of the Anaconda-Pintlar Wilderness Area, and the 



