Overview
Lycopodium clavatum is an evergreen, spore-bearing clubmoss that creeps across the ground on long horizontal runners and sends up forked, upright shoots 4-10 inches (10-25 cm) tall. The trailing stems can extend 3 feet (90 cm) or more and root at intervals, forming spreading colonies. They are densely clothed in small, narrow, bright green needle-like leaves about 0.25 inch (6 mm) long, each tipped with a hair-like point, giving the shoots a soft, mossy, branched look. Rather than flowers or seeds, the plant reproduces by spores borne in slender yellow cones, or strobili, 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long held on stalks above the foliage in late summer. The yellow spores are water-repellent and highly flammable and were once collected as lycopodium powder. It grows in acidic, poor soils of heaths, open woodland, moors, and mountain slopes across the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It is slow to establish and transplants poorly, which makes it difficult to grow in gardens.
Native Range
Lycopodium clavatum has a wide circumboreal distribution across the cooler temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, Europe, and Asia, growing on acidic heaths, moors, open woodland, and mountain slopes.Suggested Uses
Grown only rarely, and then in cool, acidic woodland or heath gardens and naturalistic shade plantings where conditions match its native ground. It forms a slow-spreading evergreen groundcover among heathers, ferns, and conifers. It is mostly encountered in the wild rather than in cultivation, and many populations are protected from collection.How to Identify
Appearance
Size & Dimensions
Height4" - 10"
Width/Spread2' - 4'
Bloom Information
This clubmoss produces no flowers. Instead it reproduces by spores released from yellow cones, or strobili, that mature in late summer to early fall, generally August to September. The powdery yellow spores are dispersed by wind, and new plants also arise vegetatively as the runners root along their length.
Detailed Descriptions
Foliage Description
bright greenGrowing Conditions
Sun Requirements
Tolerates up to 4 hours of direct sunlight daily
• Full Sun: 6+ hours of direct sunlight
• Partial Shade: 3-6 hours of direct sunlight
• Full Shade: Less than 3 hours of direct sunlight