Stiff Clubmoss
Lycopodium annotinum
Description: An erect clubmoss from horizontal runners. Terminal sporangia in sessile cones, leaves are firm and divergent, ending in a stiff point.
Ecology: Abundant in moist woods and acidic peatlands, and sand dunes in moist depressions.
Notes: This pretty little clubmoss was found growing in sphagnum and other bog mosses at the edge of a wet bog at Carlson Lake on the Sunshine Coast, June 2001.
Running Clubmoss
Lycopodium clavatum
Description: Often forms extensive mats from dichotomously branched horizontal stems which lie on the ground surface. Stems are often up to 1m or even more in length. Leaves are soft and ascending, ending in a long hyaline awn.
Ecology: Occurs in dry, open areas, usually on sandy soils. Very common on roadsides, especially logging roads at low and middle elevations.
Notes: This one was found at the edge of a small roadside bog at middle elevation, feb 2003.
Mountain Clubmoss
Lycopodium selago
Description: Similar to running clubmoss but with much less densely packed leaves, loosley erect without horizontal runners, dichotomous branching.
Ecology: Occurs in moist woods as well as moist alpine & arctic tundra, prefers acidic sites
Notes: This one was found at the shady roadside edge of a coniferous high elevation forest approaching the Caren Range Mountains, Sunshine Coast, BC, June 2001.
Ground Cedar
Lycopodium complanatum
Description: Leaves look much like that of western red cedar, with terminal cones from dichotomous branches. Horizontal subterranean stems.
Ecology: Occurs in dry, sandy soils in open forests.
Notes: This one was found at middle elevation on the side of a logging road approaching the Caren Range Mountains, Sunshine Coast, BC.
Wallace's Selaginella
Selaginella wallacei
Description: A loose and tangled mat of stems to 20cm long, leaves are narrowly oblong, 3mm long, arranged spirally, overlapping, with tips extended into stiff bristles.
Ecology: In rocky cliff-faces and ledges, mossy bluffs and slopes in open and partial shady conditions at low and middle elevations
Notes: This one was found at low elevation on a mossy rock bluff in Sechelt, BC, June 2001, it was still lush and green below some leaf litter while other specimens of the same species were dried out around it.
Common Horsetail
Equisetum arvense
Description: Grows to 75cm tall, but usually much shorter. Stems are branched, with simple branches. Unbranched cone-bearing stems appear first in early spring. Sterile stems remain till fall.
Ecology: One of the 10 most common plants in the world! The common horsetail can be found growing in mesic woods, open fields, wet areas and is often found coating the roadside ditches in our area.
Notes: This photo was taken in April 2005 in a shady spot in Halfmoon Bay, BC, shows both sterile and fertile stems.
Giant Horsetail
Equisetum telmateia
Description: Grows to 2m tall, but often to just 1m. Annual stems, with non-branched cone bearing stems in early spring only 20cm high. Sterile stems present till fall and up to 2m tall. Four to six-angled branches, stems with between 10 and 20 furrows.
Ecology: Occurs in moist forests, swampy areas and along streams.
Notes: Very common at low elevations near creeks, swamps, etc.
Swamp Horsetail
Equisetum palustre
Description: Unbranched or occasionally sporadically branched horsetail with a small hollow central cavity that is less than 1/3 the diameter of its stem (as compared to E. fluviatile whose central cavity is 70% or more of the diameter of the stem). Usually only 5-10 stem ridges.
Ecology: Found growing in shallow lakes, lake edges, marshes, wet bogs, ditches at low to middle elevation from central BC southwards. Often forms large colonies in shallow bodies of water.
Notes: These ones were growing in Carlson Lake at middle elevation, July 2006 photo.
