Exciting Find

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Today was warm. So I could not pass up the opportunity to get out this afternoon to the grasslands. While I found a lot of stuff I am going to get right to the most exciting find. The other photos will have to wait until tomorrow. 🙂

So I had stopped for a moment to admire the beautiful gold foliage among the Inland Seaoats (Chasmanthium latifolium) grass.
Then the Inland Seaoats gave way to the leaf litter.

Oh my gosh a fern was producing sporangia right in front of me! Sporangia are where ferns produce their spores.
And this fern is not the usual grapefern that is found here. It was the Southern Grape Fern or Sparse-lobed Grapefern (Sceptridium biternatum syn Botrychium biternatum)!
Close up of the leaves. This fern is normally found in East Texas.
When I moved this one the spores came flying out!
It was beautiful!

A couple years ago I found just two plants at a different location. However these were producing spores. Furthermore this second populations had some 25+ plants. Oh it was an exciting find!

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

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