Photo © Carl Farmer |
Scarce. Rock crevices, grassy path-sides and possibly other places - hard to spot. Sterile leaf-blade c 1-12 cm long. Specimens in exposed places are very small and can be confused with Small Adderstongue. Skye ID: When mature, the frond consists of a spore-less oval leaf-blade and a narrow pointed spore-bearing spike on a stalk. Told from Small Adderstongue by nearly all the fronds arising singly rather than 2-3 together. The picture on the left shows an immature frond. Mature ones have an upright spike reaching higher than the sterile blade, similar to those on the Small Adderstongue page. Other features: The spike has c 10-40 segments on each side. Small Adderstongue has c 4-18. No other Skye fern resembles the Adderstongues. Moonwort belongs to the same family but has a completely different appearance. |