CLUB MOSS

Club moss (Lycopodium annotinum) also called ground pine common name for about 200 species of plants that constitute the genus Lycopodium, of the order Lycopodiales (class Lycopsida), mainly native to tropical mountains but also common in northern forests of both hemispheres. Club mosses are evergreen herbs with needlelike leaves and, often, conelike clusters of small leaves (strobili), each with a kidney-shaped spore capsule at its base. An underground sexual phase plant (one that produces gametes, or sex cells), alternates in the life cycle with the spore-producing plant. Running pine, or stag's horn moss (L. clavatum), has creeping stems to 3 metres (about 10 feet) long and has 10-centimetre- (about 4-inch-) high ascending branches. The scalelike green leaves are set closely together. Running pine is native to open, dry woods and rocky places in the Northern Hemisphere. The spore-producing leaves are arranged in pairs along a stalklike strobilus. Ground cedar (L. complanatum variety flabelliforme), native to northern North America, produces fanlike branches resembling juniper branchlets. Shining club moss (L. lucidulum), a North American species occurring in wet woods and among rocks, has no distinct strobili; it bears its spore capsules at the bases of leaves scattered along the branches. Fir club moss (L. selago), a 20-cm-tall plant native on rocks and bog margins in the Northern Hemisphere, also lacks distinct strobili. Ground pine (L. obscurum), a 25-cm-tall plant, has underground-running stems. It is native to moist woods and bog margins in northern North America, to mountain areas farther south, and to eastern Asia. Alpine club moss (L. alpinum), with yellowish or grayish leaves, is native to cold woods and Alpine mountains in northern North America and Eurasia.