Slender Adder's Tongue

Ophioglossum tenerum Mett.; Prantl, Ber. Deuts
Bot. Ges. 1: 352. 1883.
Ophioglossum pusillum Nutt. Gen. 2 : 248. 1818. Not O. pusillum Raf. 1814.
Plant 1.5-10 cm. high, often in sand; rhizome stout, cylindric or globose, 2-5 mm. long, 1.8-5 mm. thick; roots persistent, fibrous, about 0.5 mm. thick; leaves usually two (1-4) ; commonstalk 0.1-2 cm. long, hypogean ; lamina sessile or short-stalked, mostly plane and nearly horizontal, elliptic to broadly ovate, acute or obtuse below, acute above, usually not apiculate, 0.4-2 cm. long, 0.2-0.9 cm. broad, the basal veins 3-5, the median vein slightly the strongest, emitting one or two branches, the areolae divergent from the median vein, mostly small, short and broad, the largest with several free and anastomosing included veinlets; sporophyl slender, 1.5-8 cm. long, the spike rather slender, 2-12 mm. long, 1-2 mm. thick, apiculate; sporangia 2-18-jugate; spores .03-.04 mm. thick, finelypitted and verrucose.
Type locality : Near Savannah, Georgia. Distribution : South Carolina to Louisiana ; Cuba.