support or reject the hypothesis that B^ paradoxum is not a true 

 species but an aberrant phenotype of B^ hesperium and/or other 

 species of Botrychium . This report summarizes results from the 

 first five years of the study. 



METHODS 



Study Site 



We conducted our study in the Red Rock Canyon area of 

 Waterton Lakes National Park ca. 12 km northwest of the town of 

 Waterton. The study site is located on the north side of 

 Bauerman Creek ca. 50 m northwest of the footbridge and ca. 2 00 m 

 southwest of the Red Rock parking and picnic area. Elevation of 

 the site is ca. 1555 m. The compass bearing from the site to the 

 uppermost outhouse along the creek is 139 degrees. The compass 

 bearing from the site to the top of Anderson Peak is 270 degrees. 



The vegetation of the area is lodgepole pine (Pinus 

 contorta ) and spruce (Picea engelmannii ) forest interspersed with 

 meadows dominated by rough fescue ( Festuca scabrella) , Idaho 

 fescue (|\. idahoensis ) and shrubby cinquefoil ( Potentilla 

 fruticosa ) on hilltops and warm exposures. Our study site is in 

 one of these meadows. 



Field Procedures 



We established two parallel belt transects at the study 

 site. The upper (north) consists of eight adjacent 1-m^ plots, 

 and the lower (south) consists of five plots. The start and end 

 points of the transects were permanently marked by driving 1/2 

 inch diameter reinforcing bar into the ground. These marker 

 pins were painted orange to aid relocation. Individual 

 Botrychium plants were mapped following methods outlined in 

 Lesica (1987) . For each plant we recorded the following 

 morphological characters: 



Species (P = paradoxum . W = watertonense . H = hesperium ) 



Degree of pinnation of sporophore (PI = once pinnate, P2 = twice 

 pinnate etc.) 



Above ground height (H12 = a plant 12 mm tall from ground level 

 to tip of longest sporophore branch) 



Length of sporophore (LIO = a plant with a fertile segment 10 mm 

 long) 



Thus a plant scored as H-P2-H20-L14 is morphologically identified 

 as B^ hesperium 20 mm tall with a twice-pinnate sporophore 14 mm 

 long. Species were identified using the criteria presented in 



