Clubmoss

Clubmoss, common name for a group of plants closely related to the ferns. Two important genera (see Spike Moss) are low, sometimes creeping evergreen plants that are widely distributed throughout temperate and tropical climates. Various tropical species grow as epiphytes on the trunks of trees. Usually less than 30 cm (12 in) tall, the stems are covered with narrow, awl-shaped leaves that superficially resemble the shoots of fir trees. In reproduction, spores and asexual cells borne in an elongated cone are scattered on the ground and ripen underground into sexual reproductive organs from which new plants grow.

The stag's horn clubmoss and fir clubmoss grow in open, grassy places on moors and mountains. Marsh clubmoss and lesser clubmoss grow in damp places and in bogs. Fossil species, many of gigantic size, have been found in strata of the Upper Silurian and the Devonian and Carboniferous periods.

Scientific classification: The two important families of clubmosses are the Lycopodiaceae and the Selaginellaceae. The stag's horn clubmoss is classified as Lycopodium clavatum, the fir clubmoss as Hyperzia selago, marsh clubmoss as Lycopodiella inundata, and lesser clubmoss as Selaginella selaginoides.