Lycopodium clavatum

St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Alaska, Calif., Conn., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Europe; Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands.

Lycopodium clavatum var. pseudocontiguum Christ:
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium contiguum Klotzsch:
Bolivia (South America)
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Venezuela (South America)
Ecuador (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium clavatum subsp. contiguum (Klotzsch) B. Øllg.:
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Ecuador (South America)
Guyana (South America)
Venezuela (South America)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Peru (South America)
Paraguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium clavatum var. aristatum (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Spring:
Bolivia (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Venezuela (South America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium aristatum Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.:
Bolivia (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium clavatum var. inflexum (P. Beauv.) Spring:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium clavatum var. borbonicum Bory:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)
Reunion (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lycopodium clavatum L.:
Bolivia (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Ecuador (South America)
Canada (North America)
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
El Salvador (Mesoamerica)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Japan (Asia)
French Guiana (South America)
Guyana (South America)
Paraguay (South America)
Peru (South America)
Venezuela (South America)
United States (North America)
South Africa (Africa & Madagascar)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
China (Asia)
South Korea (Asia)
Suriname (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, S Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, tropical African mountains. Also Madagascar, Mascarene Islands and in temperate climates throughout most of the world.

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Lycopodium clavatum is a variable species or group of closely related species with a circumboreal distribution and isolated populations in tropical and subtropical mountains.In the UK the species is mostly confined to upland sites in the west and north, or scattered on heaths in the south.

Habitat
In the UK on upland sites in montane grassland, open woodland, conifer plantation, and old mine spoil. In lowland sites confined to sandy heaths.

• Plant with horizontally branched, creeping main stem giving rise to occasional long slender upright shoots (8-15cm tall) that bear 1-3 pale yellow terminal cones (1.5-3.0cm long).
• Leaves are small and bristle-like tapering to a narrow, hair-like tip. They are pale yellow to green.
• Cones have scales each bearing a single kidney-shaped spore sack.
• The long, slender, upright cone-bearing branches and the fine hair-like tip to the leaves distinguish this species from other close relatives in the UK.

Lycopodium clavatum, also known as stag’s horn or wolf paw clubmoss is widespread in northern temperate, sub arctic and alpine environments.Lycopodium clavatum is an ancient species resembling some of the earliest plants to live on land. The spores of Lycopodium clavatum form Lycopodium powder, which has many commercial uses including as an explosive for special effects in the film industry.

Main stem branched, creeping, giving rise to erect, unequally dichotomously branched, secondary stems. Foliage leaves set at right angles to branches, with tip bent forwards, lanceolate, 3-5 × 0.3-0.6 mm, margins entire, apex with a fine hair-like point up to 3 mm. Fertile parts arranged in strobili; strobili 2-5, borne on a slender, sparsely leaved, branched peduncle up to 22 cm long. Sporophylls broadly ovate,up to 3 × 2 mm, margins finely lacerate.

clavatum: club-shaped, referring to the shape of the stalked strobilus.

Horizontal stems on substrate surface. Upright shoots clustered, 0.6--1.2 cm diam., dominant main shoot with 3--6 branches mostly in lower 1/2. Lateral branchlets few and like upright shoots; annual bud constrictions abrupt, branchlets mostly spreading. Leaves spreading, often somewhat ascending in distal 1/3 of branches, medium green, linear, 4--6 X 0.4--0.8 mm; margins entire; apex with narrow hair tip 2.5--4 mm. Peduncles 3.5--12.5 cm, with remote pseudowhorls of appressed leaves, loosely branched into 2--5 alternate stalks, 0.5--0.8 cm. Strobili 2--5 on alternate stalks (if double, usually with stalks 5--8 mm), 15--25 X 3--6 mm. Sporophylls 1.5--2.5 mm, apex abruptly reduced to hair tip. 2 n = 68.

Lycopodium clavatum var. subremotum Victorin

Fields and woods; 100--1800m.

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
scattered, epiphyllous, immersed, later erumpent and splitting the epidermis lengthwise stroma of Ceuthospora coelomycetous anamorph of Ceuthospora lycopodii is saprobic on dead leaf of Lycopodium clavatum
Remarks: season: 9

Foodplant / saprobe
immersed, hypophyllous pseudothecium of Phaeosphaeria lycopodina is saprobic on locally blackened bract of Lycopodium clavatum
Remarks: season: summer

Foodplant / saprobe
gregarious or scattered, immersed perithecium of Pseudomassaria lycopodina is saprobic on leaf of Lycopodium clavatum
Remarks: season: 9

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 4
Specimens with Barcodes: 12
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

In the UK this species is vulnerable to pasture improvement and afforestation.Globally it is endangered over various parts of its range through habitat destruction and commercial exploitation.

Lycopodium Powder
The minute spores of Lycopodium clavatum and closely related species are harvested from the cones and sold as Lycopodium Powder. The spores are flammable due to the high proportion of oil that they contain forming an explosive mixture with air. The oil also makes them resistant to wetting and gives them emollient properties.Lycopodium Powder has a wide range of uses:

• as an explosive mixture with air to spectacular effect in the film and entertainment industries.
• as a fine dusting on condoms and surgical gloves to lubricate the latex.
• as powder in cosmetics
• as pill coating in the pharmaceutical industry
• as a dry parting compound in foundry work to prevent metal from sticking to wooden molds
• the spores are also used in homeopathic medicine to treat a variety of ailments

Exposure to Lycopodium spores may cause allergic reactions ranging from mild dermatitis to severe asthma.