Moonwort
size:
4 - 20 centimeters
color:
green to dark green, surface glossy to dull
reproduction:
spores: May to June, ripe: July
- Dut: Gelobde maanvaren
- Lat: Botrychium lunaria
- Eng: Common moonwort
- Ger: Mondraute
- Dan: Almindelig Minerude
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MoonwortThe moon is a symbol for fertility. Young moonwort plants evolve in pits at the foot of the adult plant. This display of fertility is reason enough to name the plant after the moon. The leaf resembles a key. In olden days, one believed that this key opened ports to the underworld. The plant has one leaf containing spores and one leaf without. Moonwort grows in the dunes on northern slopes, where it stays relatively cool and damp on hot dry days. It is often found in the shadow between creeping willow and sheep fescue, or in heath lands and grasslands. |
- Protection
- , Ecomare, Sytske Dijksen
Common moonwort is listed on the Red List as very rare and moderately decreasing in number. The most important reason for its decline is loss of suitable habitats (mostly calcium-rich dunes), natural succession, overfertilization of grasslands and grazing.
See also
Info
Copyright Ecomare
