Lycopodiaceae
Club-moss family.
Lycopodiaceae, club-moss family.
Plants caespitose, or not caespitose; low, moss-like, and evergreen, in tufts, or with long ground-level stems; less than 15 cm high; (1–)2–14 cm high. Roots pallid-brown. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal, or not developed horizontally or vertically underground; rhizomatous, or stoloniferous (or, not applicable); elongate (when present); 0.5–3 mm wide. Scales absent. Aerial stems erect; circular or oval in cross-section, or squarish; with 0 ridges, or 4 ridges. Leaves distributed along the stems; alternate (that contrasts with the Equisetaceae); evergreen. Petioles absent. Leaf bases truncate, or acute. Blades 0.2–3.5 mm long; appressed to the stem; straight, or somewhat curled; linear, or elliptic, or triangular; with inconspicuous veins. Plants reproducing by spores borne in sporangia. Sporangia in the axiles of unmodified leaves (Huperzia), or in terminal cone-like structures.
Notes. Wagner and Beitel (1992), in a paper on the generic classification of modern North American Lycopodiaceae, justify segregating taxa formally treated as all being in the genus Lycopodium. These authors used characters of anatomy, chromosomes, spores, and gametophytes finding that the groups they recognized as separate genera have many distinguishing features providing strong gaps that separate them from each other. These characters include monophylesis, uniquely derived states, inability to hybridize, and a level of segregation consistent and comparable with genetic divisions in other Pteridophytes.
Cite this publication as: S.G. Aiken, M.C. LeBlanc, and M.J. Dallwitz 2000 onwards. Pteridophytes of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.’ Version: 23rd February 2001. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) , and Aiken, Dallwitz et al. (1999) should also be cited (see References).