5 - Ophioglossaceae
from Division 3 - Polypodiophyta
Summary
Perennial herbs with a short or corm-like rhizome, without scales and with fleshy roots. Fronds borne singly, with an erect stem-like stipe and a sterile lamina, often with one fertile lamina. Sterile lamina simple or entire or 1-pinnate, not spirally coiled when young. Fertile lamina a simple spike or a panicle, with the spike or panicle-branches bearing sporangia in a row either side of the axis. Sporangia homosporous. Prothallus subterranean, massive, without chlorophyll but with endotrophic mycorrhizae, bearing organs of both sexes, with the antheridia sunk in the tissues.
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- Flora of Great Britain and Ireland , pp. 14 - 16Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018