Botrychium ternatum (Thunb.) Sw.

Plants small, winter-green. Rhizomes erect, short, annually producing 1 frond (10-)15-55 cm tall. Sterile lamina: stalk 5-12 cm or longer, ca. 2 mm in diam.; lamina ternate, tri-or quadripinnatifid, dull green, subpentagonal, 5-10 × 8-12 cm, somewhat thickly herbaceous, glabrous, apex acute; pinnae subdeltoid, basal ones stalked; segments broadly elliptic or broadly ovate, sparsely crenate, apex rounded; veins pinnate, free. Sporophore arising 2-4 cm above base of common stipe (or below middle of common stipe), much taller than sterile lamina; stalk 12-25 cm; lamina bi-to tripinnate, subdeltoid, 4-10 cm; sporangia globose, attached on both lateral sides of axes. Spore surface irregularly reticulate with minute granules. 2n = 90.

Thickets and grassy places in lowland and low mountains. In the shade of shrubs; at elevations from 400-1,000 metres.

The plant is boiled and eaten as a vegetable.