Ivydene Gardens Duckweed to Ferns Wild Flower Families Gallery:
Fern Ally - Clubmoss Family.

Click on Underlined Text in:-

Common Name to view that Plant Description Page
Botanical Name to link to Plant or Seed Supplier
Flowering Months to view photos
Habitat to view further Natural Habitat details and Botanical Society of the British Isles Distribution Map

Fern Ally: Clubmoss Family:-

"Ferns and their allies are a very ancient order of flowerless plants, comprising the Ferns, Horsetails, Clubmosses and Quillworts, all perennial except for the rare Jersey Fern Polypody Family). They have no seed, but reproduce themselves by minute dust-like spores. These are produced in tiny capsules (sporangia), and give rise without any sexual process to tiny short-lived plants called prothalli, which bear male and female organs and carry out the reproductive process in the presence of moisture and not by insect or wind fertilisation, leading to the formation of a new fern plant. This process is called alternation of generations. In the Ferns the prothalli are usually small green heart-shaped scale-like plants, 1/4 - 1/2 inch across, which may often be found in damp shady spots near fern colonies, sometimes with tiny fern plants growing from them.

The Mosses, Liverworts, Stoneworts (Chara and Nitella species), Algae, Seaweeds and other more primitive flowerless plants have only cellular and not fibrous or vascular tissue, and lack true roots and usually stems as well, but are sometimes very hard to distinguish except by a knowledge of their reproductive habits.

Clubmosses are a distinctive group of low, often prostrate, perennials, robuster than true mosses, with small pointed leaves, about 1/4 inch long, overlapping along the stems. Spore-capsules carried at the base of the scales in erect cylindrical cones, or in Fir Clubmoss grouped round the stem at the base of the ordinary foliage leaves.

" from Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R. Fitter assisted by Francis Rose - ISBN 0 00 219363 9 - Eleventh Impression 1978

Fern Ally: Clubmoss Family plant table with its Common Name - Botanical Name. Flowering Months Range. Habitat with link to that Wild Flower Habitat Gallery:-

Common Name

Botanical Name

Spore-capsule Ripening Months

Habitat

Alpine Clubmoss

Lycopodium alpinum (Diphasium alpinum, Diaphasiastrum alpinum)

June-August

Moors and Mountains (locally frequent on hills, moors and mountains in Northern England and Western England; very rare in Southern England)

Spore Cone from Beinn Eighe on 29 June

Spore Cones from Beinn Eighe on 29 June

Foliage from Cnoc An Droighinn on 3 August

Form from Beinn Eighe on 29 June

Fir Clubmoss

(Cliff Clubmoss, Little Clubmoss, Mountain Clubmoss, Rock Clubmoss, Northern Fir-moss)

Urostachys selago

(Huperzia selago, Lycopodium selago, Plananthus selago)

June-August

A semi-decumbent evergreen perennial herb found on acidic, nutrient-poor, sandy or peaty soils in grassland, heathland, blanket bog, montane communities and, rarely, sand quarry tips. Generally upland, but from sea level to 1310 m (Ben Nevis, Westerness, and Ben Macdui, S. Aberdeen).

Spores from Applecross Pass on 25 June

Spores from Glencar in Kerry on 24 June

Foliage from Kerry

Form from Applecross Pass on 25 June

Interrupted Clubmoss

(Stiff Clubmoss)

Lycopodium annotinum

June-August

A sprawling, evergreen herb typically found on mountains and moorlands amongst deep Calluna on hill slopes, and sometimes in Pinus sylvestris woods. It usually grows on acidic peaty soils, often overlying boulders, or in hollows where snow accumulates. From 45 m on Mull (S. Ebudes) to 1000 m (Coire Cheap, Westerness).

Juvenile Spore-Cone from Triesenburg on 13 May

Juvenile Spore-Cone from Triesenburg on 13 May

Foliage from Triesenburg in Liechenstein on 13 May

Form from Triesenburg on 13 May

Lesser Clubmoss

Selaginella selaginoides

June-September

A small, perennial, moss-like herb which is characteristic of damp, base-rich sites where there is little competition. Typical habitats include dune-slacks, fens, flushes, mires, wet cliffs and ledges, and short upland grassland. 0-1065 m (Breadalbanes, Mid Perth).

Spore-Cone from Allt Nan Uamp on 17 June

Spores from Nedd in Sutherland on 6 August

Foliage from Allt Nan Uamp on 17 June

Form from Allt Nan Uamp on 17 June

Marsh Clubmoss

(Inundated Clubmoss)

Lycopodium inundatum

(Lycopodiella inindata, Lepidotis inundata)

June-September

A prostrate perennial herb of wet, bare, peaty or sandy margins of lakes, pools, flushes and trackways. It can rapidly colonise substrates kept open by winter inundation, cattle poaching or peat cutting. 0-390 m (Llyn Cwmffynnon, Caerns.).

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage

Form from Oakdown Forest in Sussex on 9 July

Stagshorn Clubmoss

(Common Clubmoss)

Lycopodium clavatum

June-September

A prostrate, evergreen perennial herb of heaths, moors and mountains. It is often frequent on base-rich micaceous soils, but also occurs on more acidic Calluna heath and Nardus grassland. Propagation is mostly vegetative, but spores can colonise new sites, particularly the disturbed soil of roadside embankments and quarries. Lowland to 840 m in Atholl (E. Perth). Homeopathic remedy.

Spore Cones from Kinlochewe on 23 June

Spore Cones from Kinlochewe on 23 June

Foliage on 26 June

Form on 26 June

A list of the species of the genus Huperzia, giving current name, authority, synonyms, published references, geographic distribution and (sometimes) illustrations.

Subject:  Worst joke ever 

A man starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks.

First is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds.
 As he does this, a huge fish jumps out and bites him.
 To show the others who's boss, he beats it to death with a spade.

Realising his employer won't be best pleased;
 He disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions,
as lions will eat anything.

Moving on to the second job of clearing out the chimp house,
 He is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts.
 He swipes at two chimps with a spade, killing them both.

What can he do?
 Feed them to the lions, he says to himself,
 Because lions eat anything.
 He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure.

He moved on to the last job,
 Which is to collect honey from the South African bees.
 As soon as he starts, he is attacked by the bees.
 He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp.

By now he knows what to do and throws them into the lion's cage
 - because lions eat anything.

Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo.
 He wanders up to the other lions and says
 'What's the food like here?'

The lions say:
'Absolutely brilliant.
 Today we had fish and chimps with mushy bees.'

or is it this one?

A list of the species of the genus Lycopodium, giving current name, authority, synonyms, published references, geographic distribution and (sometimes) illustrations.

Full text of " A popular history of the British Ferns and the allied plants, comprising the club-mosses, pepperworts and horsetails" by Thomas Moore and published in 1851.

What are pteridophytes? from Methods in Plant Histology.