Wagner named this plant in 1981.  B. paradoxum might occur in Colorado, but to date plants (such as the one in the photograph) with structures resembling its unique double sporophore have turned out to be anomalies of other more locally common species.  B. paradoxum does occur in four other western states.

The exact identity of the plant in the photograph is not known.  It is quite possible that this plant is B. minganense.

"Paradoxum" is Greek for "incredible or marvelous" and refers to the strange arrangement of the plant's two sporophores which can be facing each other or opposite each other. Normally Botrychiums have a single sporophore and trophophore.