Aspidotis Densa

Day 277: Aspidotis densa had not been known to occur in Mount Rainier National Park until my botany partners and I discovered it last year. We didn't know what it was when we first saw it, but as always, I took many photos of it from all angles to show all its field identification points, and looked it up as soon as I got home. Since there was no prior record of it, we were asked to obtain voucher specimens for the Park and the WTU Herbarium (Burke) if the population was sufficient to support doing so, but by the time we could get back to it, Washington had been hit with 100-degree temperatures. We were unable to locate plants showing both the narrow fertile and broad sterile fronds (see photo above). Unfortunately, the sterile fronds had withered in the blistering heat due to their greater surface area. One of our goals for Saturday's trip was to collect sterile fronds to round out the vouchers, and we were successful. Score two for Botany Day!