Southern Distribution of Botrychium oneidense and B. multifidum

Abstract

The resemblance of a plant collected for Botrychium dissectum in Greenbrier Cove, Sevier County, Tennessee (Fosberg 40332) to one found in Quebec (Fosberg 40154) a few weeks previously and called B. multifidum by botanists there directed my attention to differences between this Smoky Mountains plant and two other collections from the Smokies near the Chimneys Campground, Sevier County (Fosberg 40334, 40336). The aberrant collection, representing a small colony, has short stubby ultimate segments, rounded to acute at the tips, but the fronds are not as dissected as those of plants of B. multifidum from Shenandoah National Park. It corresponds well with the description of B. dissecturn var. oneidense (Gilb.) Farw. as given by Fernald in the 8th edition of Gray's Manual. When W. H. Wagner expressed an interest in seeing this collection I sent it, along with a number of others of the Sceptridium group of Botrychium. He confirmed my identification, but prefers to regard B. oneidense as a separate species. So far as we know this constitutes a new record for Tennessee and for the Great Smokies. Another collection, Fosberg 23958b, from Little Hunting Creek just east of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River, Fairfax County, Virginia, as well as the one from Quebec, three miles west of Napierville (Fosberg 40154), also proved to be B. oneidense. The Virginia and Tennessee records rather amplify the known distribution of B. oneidense in the southeastern United States. It has previously been reported from Rockingham County, Virginia, by Clausen (1944); Yellow Creek, Graham County, North Carolina, by Clausen (1938); from Roan Mountain, Mitchell County, North Carolina, by Clausen (1943); and from Gatewood Switch, Pendleton County, West Virginia, by Strausgbaugh and Core (1952). The latter specimen has been verified by Dr. Wagner as B. oneidense (in litt. Aug. 7, 1960). The only localities south of Pennsylvania in eastern North 175