Fam. 2. Lycopodiaceae Reichb. Clubmoss Family 



Low terrestrial erect or trailing perennial plants; stems mostly prostrate or 

 arching and giving rise to aerial peduncles or branches, alternately branched 

 or repeatedly dichotomous, densely or sparsely covered with small leaves; leaves 

 numerous, mostly small and thin, 1 -nerved, usually uniform and imbricate, several- 

 to many-ranked, rigidly ascending to spreading-reflexed; sporophylls similar to 

 the vegetative leaves or more or less modified, crowded into a cone at the apex 

 of the aerial stems; sporangia large, in the axils of the sporophylls, uniform, 

 1-celled; spores all alike (plants homosporous), small, globose, light yellow; 

 prothallia fleshy, tuberous, monoecious. 



This family is composed of two genera, the monotypic genus Phylloglossum, of 

 Australia and New Zealand, and Lycopodium. 



1. Lycopodium L. Clubmoss 



Characters same as those of the family. About 450 species that are found 

 mainly in temperate and mountanous tropical regions. 



1. Stems arching and rooting, not truly prostrate; stem leaves spreading radially.. 

 L L. alopecuroides var. alopecuroides. 



1. Stems prostrate (2) 



2(1). Foliage leaves unlike sporophylls; stem leaves spreading, arranged so as 

 to appear 2-ranked 3. L. carolinianum. 



2. Foliage leaves and sporophylls similar (3) 



3(2). Sporophylls incurved, appressed; cone slender, only slightly thicker than 

 the supporting peduncle 2. L. adpressum. 



3. Sporophylls more or less spreading; cone stout, 2 to 3 times the diameter of 



the supporting peduncle 1. L. alopecuroides var. pinnatum. 



1. Lycopodium alopecuroides L. var. alopecuroides. Foxtail clubmoss. Fig. 5. 

 Peduncles to 35 cm. tall; cone 2-10 cm. long; leaves linear-lanceolate, bristle- 

 toothed below, 6-8 mm. long; sporophylls similar to leaves in shape and size. 



In wet places in savannahs and boggy areas in low open pinelands in s.e. Tex., 

 July-Nov.; from Fla., in the Coastal Plain, n. to N.Y. and w. to Tex.; also S.A. 



The outstanding characteristic by which var. alopecuroides is most easily recog- 

 nized in the field is the arching stem that usually roots at the tip when it touches 

 the ground, and the several more or less erect peduncles. 



Var. pinnatum (Chapm.) Lloyd & Underw. Creeping foxtail clubmoss. The 

 prostrate habit of this variety is the only characteristic separating it from var. 

 alopecuroides. L. prostratum Harper. Apparently isolated in Travis Co., Tex.; 

 also from cen. La., e. to Fla. and n. along the coast to N.C. 



2. Lycopodium adpressum (Chapm.) Lloyd & Underw. Southern clubmoss. Fig. 5. 

 Peduncles to 3 dm. tall and about 3 mm. in diameter; cone slender, 2-7 cm. 



long; leaves linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, entire or slightly toothed below, 6-7 

 mm. long; sporophylls similar to the leaves. L. alopecuroides var. adpressum 

 Chapm. 



In depressions in savannahs and flat open pinelands, bogs and sphagnous 

 habitats in e. and s.e. Tex., lune-Oct.; mostly on Coastal Plain from Fla., n. to 

 N.Y. and w. to Tex. 



The incurved appressed leaves on the peduncle and the slight difference in 

 size between the peduncle and cone are distinctive. 



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