Moonwort

Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria)
Strange little fern- quite rare - which appeared in our meadow in May.
Not quite ripe yet as the spore frond has not fully uncurled. Reputedly the first record here for 15 years. Maybe only site in Worcs at the moment.Been taking a sequence since May second.
Supposed to be asscociated with witchcraft and strange goings on !!
D7000
Sigma 150mm macro.
ISO 320 60th sec @f5
Three stacked images.
CZM
Paint shop pro7
Slight crop.
Cheers
JR

Super....

Thanks Phil
It should still be ok when you come up this way.
JR

Found one of these lovely little plants a few years ago up on the moors. You're lucky it's in such short grass, even with GPS tagging, it took us a fair while to relocate it each time we visited as the moor grasses hid them so well! I seem to recall that with a bit of searching we managed to find a couple of plants in the area, but haven't seen any since then . Enjoy it while you can

Never seen one of these before so thanks for sharing this one, John.

Although quite rare, do they grow country wide or just in certain areas?

Andy...

Interesting, never seen or heard of it. Cant wait to see it unfurled.

Thanks all
Andy- Quite widespread from Scotland down, in old meadows usually and sometimes on spoil heaps. Probably under recoorded as Nick says- it is very hard to find once the grass is up.
Its only3 and a half inches now.
Cheers
JohnR

Never seen one up here but then the bracken usually swamps many areas. TFS JR and technically perfect as always.

Nick.

that's not something I've seen before John, it looks interesting. Nicely taken.

Matt