Lycopodiaceæ
Club-moss Family

Branching, moss-like plants with small lanceolate or subulate, sometimes oblong or roundish simple leaves, arranged in two or many ranks on trailing or sometimes erect, usually branched stems.

Sporanges solitary in the axils of the leaves or on their upper surfaces.

Lycopodium Selago L. Fir Club-moss.

Stems usually yellowish throughout, 3—6 inches high, thick, rigid, erect, 2—5 times forked, the branches forming a level topped cluster; leaves crowded, uniform, ascending, elongated, lanceolate with a spiny tip, the upper mostly 8-ranked and sterile, those below bearing small sporanges in their axils, leaves of the lower half of the stems again sterile; plant propagated also by enlarged bud-like organs.

Throughout the region in alpine meadows and slopes above 6000 feet elevation.

Lycopodium annotinum L. Stiff Club-moss.

Stems much branched, slender, prostrate and creeping, rather stiff, 1—4 feet long, the branches similar, ascending 5—8 inches high, sparingly forked; leaves uniform, spreading, 5-ranked, rigid, linear-lanceolate, minutely serrulate, nerved below, spikes solitary or several at the ends of the branches, oblong, cylindric 1—1½ inches long, composed of ovate or ovate-cordate, short-acuminate and denticulate bracts, each with a sporange in its axil.

In woods throughout the region, frequent.

Lycopodium clavatum L. Running Pine.

Stems extensively creeping, 1—4 feet long with similar short, irregular ascending or decumbent, densely leafy branches; leaves much crowded, many-ranked, incurved, linear-subulate, bristle-tipped, the lower denticulate, the upper nearly entire or slightly decurrent on either side; spikes 1—4 on long peduncles; bracts membranous, roundish, and irregularly denticulate below.

In dry woods and open grounds, rather rare in the region, observed only in the Selkirks around Glacier and Roger’s Pass.

Lycopodium sitchensis Rupr. Arctic Club-moss.

Stems prostrate, 8—12 inches long, on or a little beneath the surface; sending up frequent branched stems which form compact masses of vertical, compressed branches 2—3 inches high, with occasional stronger, spike-bearing branches; leaves lanceolate with a broad base, spreading and curving upwards, thick, entire, acute, in five rows on the branchlets; the spikes nearly sessile.

On grassy alpine slopes 6000 feet and upwards in the Selkirks, especially in the region about Glacier.

Lycopodium complanatum L. Trailing Christmas-green.

Stems extensively creeping, with erect or ascending reinform or fan-shaped branches, several times forked above with crowded flattened branchlets; leaves minute, overlapping, flattened, 4-ranked, the lateral row with somewhat spreading tips; peduncle slender, 2—6 inches high, forked, bearing 2—4 linear-cylindric spikes, bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, with pale irregularly cut margins.

In mossy woods at the lower altitudes, more or less frequent throughout the region, especially in the Rockies.

Lycopodium alpinum L. Alpine Club-moss.

Stems prostrate, 8—20 inches long on or near the surface of the ground, forming numerous, several times branched clusters 2—3 inches high with glaucous leaves, and occasional stouter, compressed spike-bearing stems, extending above the others; leaves 4-ranked, erect, flattened, those of the lateral rows two to three times larger than those intermediate; spikes sessile, few, ½—¾ of an inch long.

In alpine meadows, on slopes, and in open woods throughout the region from 6000 feet upwards.