Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
Lycopodiaceae
Species Description - Plants epiphytic or rarely terrestrial in wet moss, more or less laxly pendent from an arcuate base, up to 80 cm long, few- to many-times dichotomous, the divisions slender, often ffaccid, those of the terminal part discontinuously sporangiate. Stems 2-12 mm wide including leaves. Leaves delicately herbaceous, closely and spirally arranged in 10-12 ranks (often appearing to be in whorls of 5), ascending and imbricate or somewhat recurved-spreading, 3-6(-10) mm long, the sterile ones linear-attenuate or subfiliform and usually 0.2-0.3 mm broad at base, the sporophylls often broader (to 0.6 mm wide) or, in densely fertile apical branches, shorter (ca. 2 mm long), lance-ovate to narrowly lanceolate, longacuminate, excavate on adaxial side and partly concealing the sporangia. Sporangia suborbicular, 0.6-0.8(-l) mm broad, with a shallow sinus.
Type. Sonnerat s.n., from Reunion (SBT, not seen).
Syn. Lycopodium setaceum Lamarck, Encycl. 3: 653. 1789. (Lectotype. Commerson s.n., from Reunion, Herb. Jussieu 640-A, P, photo US.)
Lycopodium acerosum Swartz, Fl. Ind. occid. 3: 1575. 1806. (Lectotype. Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 166, fig. B; authentic specimen collected by Plumier in Herb. Surian 635, P.)
Lycopodium portoricense Underwood & Lloyd, Bull. Toney Bot. Club 33: 108. 1906.
Urostachys verticillatus (Linnaeus fil.) Herter, Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 39: 249. 1922.
Urostachys portoricensis (Underwood & Lloyd) Herter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 19: 163. 1923.
Urostachys acerosus (Swartz) Herter ex Nessel & Hoehne, Arch. Bot. Sao Paulo 1: 399. 1927. Huperzia verticillata (Linnaeus fil.) Rothmaler, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 54: 60. 1944.
The neotropical population of this species is sometimes segregated as Lycopodium acerosum, but no clear morphological disjunction from the plants of Africa and Reunion has yet been demonstrated.
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