CHAPTER 15 



THE LYCOPODS (CLUBMOSSES 



The next great group, and the one to which the name microphyllous particularly 

 applies, albeit with reservations in the case oilsoetes, is that of the true Lycopods. These 

 consist of three exceedingly dissimilar genera, Lycopodium, Isoetes and Selaginella, all of 

 which are cosmopohtan and of one additional monotypic genus confined to Australia 

 and New Zealand, Phylloglossum. Further reference to Phylloglossum will, for the moment, 

 be omitted, since the centre of interest throughout this book is among wild European 

 plants wherever possible. The contents of this 

 chapter will, therefore, be confined to the 

 British representatives of Lycopodium, Isoetes 

 and Selaginella, slightly supplemented, in the 

 case of Selaginella, by examination of two non- 

 British wild European species. 



The British Lycopods comprise only nine 

 species, namely, three of Isoetes, five of Lyco- 

 podium and one Selaginella. All are small in 

 stature and quite insignificant components 

 of the vegetation, but in structure, life history, 

 ecology and past history they combine more 

 points of interest, and raise more fundamental 

 botanical problems than can be found at one 

 time in any other group. They are, moreover, 

 each and all sufficiently localized and distinc- 

 tive to constitute landmarks in the recollection 

 of every field botanist or nature lover who has 

 made their acquaintance by his own exertions. 



Taking the genus Lycopodium first as per- 

 haps the best known to the average field 

 naturalist, we have five British species, all of 

 them to be found among mountains and most 

 of them confined to such regions. L. clavatum 

 (Fig. 241), Hhe Clubmoss' par excellence, is 



also to be met with on heaths, where its creeping branched stem, densely clothed with 

 little leaves and rooted at intervals, may cover many yards of ground. Very similar in 

 habit, though more restricted in range, is L. annotinum L. (Fig. 251), locally abundant in 

 the Scottish Highlands but very rare in England, the best known locality being one hillside 

 in the Lake District where I suspect that it is not always fertile (see below). L. alpinum L. 

 is somewhat more specialized in structure, having a subterranean, colourless, creeping 

 stem from which little tufts of aerial branches, closely pressed to the ground, arise at 



Fig. 241. ^Whouciit oi Lycopodium clavatum 

 L. from Borrowdale. Natural size. 



244 



