Lycopodium obscurum L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Lycopodiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Lycopodium obscurum L.

• Description

  Species Description - Prostrate stems deeply subterranean, elongate, branched; erect stems scattered, simple below, freely branched above, to 3 dm, the main axis 2 mm thick, the branchlets terete or flattened; lvs numerous, shining, 6–8-ranked, linear-subulate, all alike or ± dimorphic, 4.6 × 0.8–1.2 mm, entire, firm, sharp-pointed; cones terminating some of the branches; sessile, 1–4 cm, 5–7 mm thick; sporophylls yellowish, broad-based, abruptly acuminate, with hyaline, inconspicuously erose margins; sporangia reniform, 1.5–2 mm wide; spores with the commissural faces more finely reticulate than the outer, otherwise as in no. 9 [Lycopodium annotinum L.]; 2n=68. Moist woods and bog-margins in acid soil; boreal Amer. and Asia, s. in e. U.S. to n. Ga., Ala., Ind., and Mo.

• Common Names

  princess-pine, ground-pine