Ferns usually have the spores on the backs of leaves and instinctively one turns over the leaf to look at the pattern. Not with B. lunaria though. This fern has one blade like an ordinary fern leaf and one with sporangia sprouting on stalks - very much like a flower. The sporangia ripen, going brown and releasing the spores as in other ferns. This fern is also unusual in that it is perfectly at home on a dry heath near sea-level and, like this one, on a mountain ledge at over 3,000 feet.
Ledge on Ben Lawers Corrie, 1st August 2004
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Amended on December 10th 2004