#lycopodiaceae

Despite the fact that I was still ill from COVID, getting out to the Craters of the Moon hydrothermal area really perked me up, because I could see stuff like this. It had me baffled - it resembled enormous, stiff moss, and I couldn't think what it might be. Turns out they were the first examples of an entire Class of organisms I've ever seen - the Lycopods. And I was going to see a fair few more before I headed back to Australia.

AKA Lycopodiella cernua, Lycopodium cernuum, and a whole bunch of other synonyms. In Hawai'i the name for the plant is wāwaeʻiole, or "rat's foot".

It grows in the tropics worldwide, favouring bogs, especially in mountainous areas. It only grows as far south as New Zealand because the hydrothermal areas are hot, moist, acidic, and fully exposed to the sun.

Lycopods are vascular plants that first appeared in the fossil record during the Silurian period, 444 - 419 million years ago. They're especially abundant in coal deposits, and formed extensive forests by the subsequent Devonian. Palhinhaea cernua is the largest of the living clubmosses, having rhizomes up to 5m in length, with leafy uprights up to half that, but some of the extinct species had trunks 50m high.

The life cycle of lycopods include an independent sporophyte stage and a long-lived gametophyte stage. The sporophytes (as seen here) produce single-celled spores that disperse and germinate into small gametophytes that eventually produce the eggs and sperm. In this genus and its relatives the gametophytes grow on the surface of the soil and are partially photosynthetic, but have a symbiotic relationship with soil fungi as well. In other genera the gametophyte grows underground and relies entirely on the fungi. After fertilization, the embryos grow into sporophytes again.

Lycopod spores are highly flammable, and are used in fireworks and flash powders.

Palhinhaea sp.，a fascinating clubmoss from the alpine Andes of northern Peru.

The Shine of 

Shining Firmoss 

Huperzia lucidula

can only truly be respected on a clear morning after many days of heavy rain. 

AKA Pseudodiphasium volubile. 'volubile' mean 'twining'.

Another clubmoss at the Craters of the Moon, although this one was growing further away from the scorching subterranean heat and had small trees and shrubs to clamber over. Distinguished from other clubmosses by the flattened fronds, and drooping strobili (spore-bearing structures). Photos of them from another of my sightings.

Wikipedia says the species is found from Malaysia to Queensland, Australia, and has been introduced to Equador, but the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network says that it's native to many parts of Aotearoa, and that there's only a single record of the species in Australia.

Found in many habitats from coastal to montane, in gumland scrub, shrublands, forest margins and along open ridgelines in dense forest, and on roadsides and cuttings. Difficult to propagate in captivity, apparently.