_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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.