Huperzia selago Bernhardi ex Schrank & Martius subsp. arctica Grossh. ex Tolm. A. Löve and D. Löve
Northern fir-moss, lycopode sélagine.
Lycopodiaceae, club-moss family.
Bot. Not. 114: 35. 1961. Reg. Monac., 3. 1829.
Type: Described from Siberia, Yakutian ASSR: ïnter colles ad pagum Pochodskoji, prope fl. Kolyma inferiorem, in Jacutia arctica".
Lycopodium selago L. Sp. Pl. 2: 1102. 1753.
Lycopodium selago L. subsp. arctica (Grossh. ex Tolm) A. Löve and D. Löve
Planthanthus selago (L.) Palisot de Beauviois
Urostachys selago (L.) Herter
Lycopodium selago L. Sp. Pl. 2: 1102. 1753.
Plants caespitose; forming small isolated tufts of branched and unbranched stems; less than 15 cm high; (1–)2–12(–15) cm high. Roots pallid-brown. Ground-level or under-ground stems not developed horizontally or vertically underground. Aerial stems erect; circular or oval in cross-section; with 0 ridges; glabrous. Branches yellowish (when plants are growing in direct sun, green when plants are growing in shade). Leaves distributed along the stems; alternate; evergreen. Petioles absent. Leaf bases truncate. Blades 3–5(–7.5) mm long; 1–1.5 mm wide (the leaves of the mature portion of the stem slightly smaller than the leaves of the juvenile portion, particularly in sun forms Wagner and Beitel (1993)); appressed to the stem (sun forms), or spreading from the vertical (shade forms), or reflexed (juvenile plants); leathery; straight, or somewhat curled; linear, or triangular (widest at the base); flat; with inconspicuous veins; stomata on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces; adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Leaf margins entire (to the naked eye, papillate at 10 X). Leaf apices acute. Plants reproducing by spores borne in sporangia. Sporangia in the axiles of unmodified leaves.
Chromosome information. 2n = 268. Wagner and Beitel (1993).
Distribution. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands, Victoria, Somerset, Southampton, Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Elevation 10–1000 m (CAN 283948). Substrates, wet meadows, hummocks, snow beds, depressions of low centre polygons; imperfectly drained moist areas, on seepage slopes, moderately well drained; acidic, or calcareous (CAN 4275), or non-calcareous rocks (granite and gneiss); sand, silt, clay; with high organic content, or peat. Snow areas with Cassiope (CAN 31198), dry igneous rock outcrop between bare rock outcrops, wet or moist depressions on south facing moraine, gabbro outcrop, calcareous till veneer with heath species, tundra heath, with Dryas, Draba, and Saxifraga.
Notes. Characterised by horizontal stems absent and clustered upright shoots. The roots travel in the stem cortex some distance before emerging. The spores are borne in the axils of unmodified leaves. The sides of the spores are concave at the middle.
Wagner and Beitel (1993) distinguished the temperate and arctic Hyperzia taxa as a genus distinct from Lycopodium because the former taxa have many differences from the tropical epiphytes, in particular the remarkably complex and specialised shoots, gemmiferous branchlets, gemmae, and unbranched gametophytes.
In the area of central to northwestern Canada, numerous scattered collections of plants of this genus have been identified as Huperzia selago but it is possible that other, rather similar species may be represented (Wagner and Beitel (1993).
Plants from Greenland formerly identified as H. selago are H. appalachiana Beitel and Mickel (Wagner and Beitel 1993).
Illustrations. • Close-up of plants. Relatively lush plants growing among rocks at Godhaven (Osterdal) Greenland. Sporangia borne among the leaves are indicated by the arrows. The tips of the developing stems have smaller compact leaves, that may or may not have sporangia developing in the axils. CMN Photo Library image S78–532. Photograph by Mildred and Raymond D. Wood. • Plants in environment. More compact and shorter plants less than 15 cm high growing among lichens at Nunavut, Kugluktuk (Coppermine). CMN Photo Library image S78–294. Photograph by Mildred and Raymond D. Wood. • Close-up of sterile stems. Branching stems with compact, overlapping leaves and slight protrusions where young branches are developing. CMN Photo Library image S74–907. • Close-up of fertile plants. Yellow sporangia borne in the axils of undifferentiated leaves. Stems beginning to branch at the apex. CMN Photo Library image S84–5644. • Close up of fruiting stem. Yellow sporangia borne in the axils of the stem leaves, not in a specialized cone. Photo Library images S84–5645. • Leaf morphology. Contrasting leaf morphology in the three arctic species in the Lycopodiaceae. A. Diphasiastrum alpinum. Leaves of ultimate branches strictly four ranked, decussate, with every pair decurrent on the stem as a pair of flanges, each flange continuous with one margin of the leaf. B. Lycopodium annotinum. Leaves crowded in eight ranks tending to be subverticillate with four rows of each pseudo-whorl spreading from the stem. C. Huperzia selago, left a vegetative leaf; right a sporophyll leaf. • Arctic Island Distribution.
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).
