Leathery Grape Fern

*Sceptridium multifidum* takes on a purplish tint in the cool autumn weather. Descriptions of the species state its fronds remain green overwinter, but obviously, they do not.

Sceptridium multifidum, the leathery grape fern, is similar to Sceptridium rugulosum (St. Lawrence grape fern), which was covered in an earlier post. At one time, Sceptridium rugulosum was considered a variation of Sceptridium multifidum and was named Botrychium multifidum forma dentatum.

**Frond of a young *Sceptridium mulitifidum* plant.**

Description

Segment blades of Sceptridium multifidum are flat, rounded, with entire to shallowly denticulate margins and blunt tips. The texture is leathery. The fronds can be large, measuring 25 by 35 cm.

**A large (almost 25 cm across) *Sceptridium multifidum* frond**.

*Sceptridium multifidum* plant with two photosynthetic fronds, an unusual occurrence.

Habitat

Sceptridium multifidum grows in old fields, the edges of woodlands, and in open forests. Often, there will be dozens of plants growing at a single location. Sceptridium rugulosum and Sceptridium dissectum may also be present.

They live a long time

Like Sceptridium rugulosum, Sceptridium multifidum can live for many decades (Stevenson 1975). The ferns in the photos with the larger fronds were first seen by me around 1994. Even then, the fronds were large. I excavated two medium-sized plants in 1995 and counted the leaf scars on the stems. They had about 25 leaf scars each. If Sceptridium produces one frond per year, then those two plants were 25 years old. So, it is possible that the other larger ferns were also 25 years old or older, making these in the photos at least 55 years old.

Range

Sources

Mushrooms, moss, and algae

*Omphalina* mushrooms sprouting from peat moss growing on a wet vertical rock face.

This delicate, tiny mushroom growing from Sphagnum moss is a species of Omphalina, possibly in the Omphalina pyxidata complex. Omphalina is a Basidiomycota, one of five divisions in the Kingdom Fungi. Basidiomycota is the fungus division that includes the white button mushroom, shiitake, boletes, and bracket fungi, among many others.

The Sphagnum moss from which the mushroom is sprouting was growing in an unusual place. It was in a shaded spot in a forest on a north-facing vertical rock face with water seeping from cracks.

On some of the moss plants there is bumpy green growth that may be an algae (Coccomyxa?). Is this Omphalina mushroom part of a basidiolichen and not a mere saprophyte?

Basidiolichens are a lichen symbiosis composed of a green alga (sometimes with a cyanobacterium) and a Basidiomycota fungus. Most lichens are formed by fungi in the division Ascomycota.

*Omphalina* fruiting bodies sprouting from *Sphagnum* moss. On the moss just below the largest mushroom are granules of a green alga.

The genus Omphalina has undergone taxonomic revisions lately and has been split into other genera. One of these is Lichenomphalina, a basidiolichen. Maybe the mushrooms in the photos are a Lichenomphalina, but until I go back to the site where I found it, I won’t know for certain.

Wordless Wednesday

A neighborly moth

Genus overview

Haploa is a genus of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea, family Erebidae, subfamily Arctiinae (Tiger and Lichen Moths). The genus comprises six species in North America north of Mexico and is not known from anywhere else. Four species are known from Minnesota: Haploa contigua, Haploa lecontei, Haploa reversa, and Haploa confusa.

So that’s the easy part. When I look over my photos of Haploa species, I am struck by the way Haploa lecontei, Haploa reversa, and Haploa confusa seem to grade into one another. Why? Maybe because I am misidentifying them. Or maybe because these are just photos of one species and its range of variation. Which species? I’m not sure anymore, but it might be Haploa confusa. The one I am sure of is Haploa contigua.

Haploa contigua

Haploa contigua is one of four species of Haploa with all white hindwings. The base color of the forewings is cream-colored to white. The costa and inner margins are bordered in dark brown. A diagonal dark brown line extends from the costa beyond the midpoint to the inner margin above the anal angle. Joining this is another line running from the outer margin. Haploa contigua lacks any lines or spurs in the antemedial portion of the forewing. All-white individuals are indistinguishable from other Haploa species with all-white forms.

Haploa contigua inhabits mesic woodlands to riparian woodlands. The larvae feed on the leaves of many species of woody and herbaceous plants.

The genus name “Haploa” is from the Greek word for “simplicity, singleness”, and the species epithet “contigua” is from the Latin word for “bordering” and so the neighbor moth.