Of all the moonworts out there – pumice, dainty and paradox, to name a few – the forked-leaf was least known.
Not anymore.
Found in July along a road on Guanella Pass in the Arapaho National Forest, the thumb- size cousin to a fern appears to be a new plant species.
“We’ve had experts come look at the plants, and they all agreed – yes, this is new to science,” said Steve Popovich, an Arapaho National Forest botanist.
The moonwort was spotted by a wildlife biologist doing survey work before the start of a road regrading project in Clear Creek County.
Forest Service officials called in two noted moonwort authorities. (Yes, there is more than one.)
Donald Farrar and Cindy Johnson Groh analyzed the plants’ DNA and found they were looking at a new moonwort species or subspecies.
“We are seeing things at Guanella Pass that just don’t show up at other sites,” said Farrar, a researcher at Iowa State University.
It could be more than a year before Farrar and other researchers know exactly what they’ve found.
Still, that hasn’t quelled enthusiasm for the discovery.
“As a botanist, this is very exciting,” said Tim Hogan, the collections manager at the University of Colorado’s Herbarium.
“It’s pretty infrequent that new plant species are described in Colorado,” he said.
Thomas Grant, a plant ecologist at the Denver Botanic Gardens, said there are up to a dozen species of moonworts growing in Colorado.
Typically the primitive-looking plants, whose lineage goes back to the time of the dinosaurs, thrive in high-altitude areas that have been disturbed by a rockslide, an avalanche or road construction.
“They are really just that hard to find,” Grant said.
The new moonwort is tentatively being dubbed Botrychium bifurcatum – describing the plant’s forked leaf, Popovich said.
Other names that were considered were the Guanella Pass moonwort and the Lindsay moonwort after Kathy Lindsay, the biologist who discovered it, he said.
“Needless to say, she was pretty bummed about it,” Popovich said. “So we gave her a cash reward instead.”
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
