Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Huperzia appalachiana

Appalachian clubmoss, Appalachian firmoss, lycopode des appalaches, mountain fir-moss
Gemmiferous branchlets

produced throughout mature portion;

gemmae 3–4 × 2.5–3.5 mm;

lateral leaves 0.5–1 mm wide, narrowly acute.
Shoots

erect, determinate, 6–10 cm, clustered to rarely shortly decumbent, decumbent portion to 1 cm;

leaves in mature distal portion markedly smaller than leaves in juvenile proximal portion;

annual constrictions absent;

juvenile growth erect.
Leaves

ascending to spreading (juvenile portion) or ascending to appressed (mature portion), green to yellow green, not lustrous;

leaves in juvenile portion narrowly triangular, 4–6 mm, widest at base;

leaves in mature portion narrowly triangular, 2–3.5 mm;

margins entire or with occasional papillae;

stomates present on both surfaces, numerous (35–60 per 1/2 leaf) on adaxial surface.
Spores

29–35 µm.

Huperzia appalachiana
Habitat On damp, acidic, igneous rocks in alpine zone or exposed cliffs and talus slopes elsewhere
Elevation 800–2300 m, lower (600–1200 m) along coast of Atlantic Ocean and Lake Superior (2600–7500 ft, lower (2000–3900 ft) along coast of Atlantic Ocean and Lake Superior)
Distribution
from FNA
GA; MA; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NY; SC; TN; VA; VT; NF; NS; ON; QC; SPM; Greenland; possibly Europe
[WildflowerSearch map]
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Lycopodiaceae > Huperzia
Sibling taxa
H. haleakalae, H. lucidula, H. miyoshiana, H. occidentalis, H. porophila, H. selago
Name authority Beitel & Mickel: Amer. Fern J. 82: 42. (1992)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers