Flora of North America species comparison

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Huperzia lucidula

Lycopodiaceae

huperzie brillant, shining clubmoss, shining fir-moss

club-moss family
Habit Plants terrestrial, on rock, or epiphytic.
Roots

emerging near origin, or growing through cortex and emergent some distance from origin.
Horizontal stems

present or absent, mainly protostelic, in some species becoming actino- or plectostelic, on substrate surface or subterranean, or forming stolons.
Gemmiferous branchlets

produced in 1 pseudowhorl at end of each annual growth cycle;

gemmae 4–6 × 3–6 mm, lateral leaves 1.5–2.5 mm wide, broadly obtuse with distinct mucro.

Shoots

erect, indeterminate, 14–20(–100) cm, becoming long-decumbent, with long, trailing, senescent portion turning brown;

juvenile and mature portions similar with strong annual constrictions due to formation of winter bud;

juvenile growth erect.

Lateral shoots

present or absent, simple or branched, branching pattern dichotomous and sometimes pseudomonopodial;

leaves uniform or dimorphic or trimorphic.
Upright shoots

simple or branched, usually conspicuously leafy at least at base; abscising gemmae formed by reduced lateral shoots.
Upright and lateral shoots

round or flat in cross section;

leaves on subterranean parts flat, appressed, nonphotosynthetic, and scalelike;

leaves on aerial parts appressed, ascending, or spreading, with 1 central unbranched vein, needlelike to lanceolate to ovate, remote to dense and imbricate, with or without basal and/or mucilage canals.
Leaves

spreading to reflexed, dark green, lustrous;

largest leaves narrowly obovate, leaves broadest at or above middle, 7–11 mm, margins papillate, teeth 1–8, irregular, large;

smallest leaves (at annual constrictions) narrowly lanceolate, 3–6 mm;

stomates on abaxial surface only.

Strobili

sessile or stalked, upright, nodding, or pendent.
Sporangia

solitary, adaxial near leaf base or axillary; subtending leaves (sporophylls) unmodified and photosynthetic to much modified, nonphotosynthetic, reduced, and aggregated in strobili;

sporangia reniform to globose, thick-walled with hundreds of spores, outer walls variously modified.
Spores

23–29 µm. 2n = 134.

all 1 kind, trilete, thick-walled, surfaces pitted to small-grooved, rugulate, or reticulate.
Gametophytes

subterranean and nonphotosynthetic or surficial and photosynthetic.

Huperzia lucidula

Lycopodiaceae
Habitat Terrestrial in shaded conifer forests and mixed hardwoods, rarely on rock on shady mossy acidic sandstone
Elevation 0–1800 m (0–5900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM
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Worldwide
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Discussion

Huperzia × bartleyi (Cusick) Kartesz & Gandhi, a sterile hybrid between H. lucidula and H. porophila, occurs throughout the range of H. porophila and is discussed under that species. Huperzia × buttersii (Abbe) Kartesz & Gandhi is a hybrid between H. lucidula and H. selago.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

The Lycopodiaceae are an extremely diverse, ancient family. The family may contain even more than the estimated 400 species because the tropical members and the very large genus Phlegmariurus are still poorly known. The relationships among genera of Lycopodiaceae are not well understood because large evolutionary gaps exist among most genera. Some of the genera, notably Diphasiastrum, Huperzia, and Lycopodiella, exhibit extensive interspecific hybridization, which has caused much taxonomic confusion in the past. Differences in expressions of many of the generic characters are subtle, and some of the characters are microscopic.

Genera 10–15, species 350–400 (7 genera, 27 species in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Horizontal stems absent; upright parts of shoots clustered; roots traveling in stem cortex some distance before emerging; sporangia borne in axils of unmodified leaves; spores pitted to small-grooved.
→ 2
1. Horizontal stems present; upright shoot systems alternating along rhizome; roots emerging from where they originate; sporangia borne in axils of highly modified, reduced sporophylls aggregated into upright or nodding or pendent strobili; spores reticulate or rugulate.
→ 3
2. Leafy gemmae and gemmiferous branchlets absent; spore sides at equator convex with acute to blunt angles; mainly tropical, epiphytic.
Phlegmariurus
2. Leafy gemmae and gemmiferous branchlets present; spore sides at equator concave with truncate angles; mainly temperate and subarctic, terrestrial or on rock.
Huperzia
3. Strobili borne on distinct peduncles or sessile; peduncles, if present, bearing remote, reduced leaves; spores reticulate; gametophytes subterranean, nonphotosynthetic; mainly dry uplands.
→ 4
3. Strobili erect on leafy peduncles (or nonleafy peduncles in Pseudolycopodiella) or nodding or pendent on lateral shoots; peduncles, if present, bearing closely spaced, unreduced leaves; spores rugulate; gametophytes on substrate surface, photosynthetic; mainly wetlands.
→ 5
4. Ultimate shoots (including leaves) 5–12 mm diam.; rounded (flattened in Lycopodium obscurum); leaves 6-ranked or more, not imbricate; peduncles, if present, falsely appearing to have 1 main branch (pseudomonopodial) and alternate; gametophytes disc-shaped.
Lycopodium
4. Ultimate shoots (including leaves) 2–6 mm diam., quadrate to flattened (except in D. sitchense, which is round-branched); leaves mostly 4–5-ranked, mostly imbricate (except in D. sitchense); peduncles, if present, dichotomously branched; gametophytes carrot-shaped.
Diphasiastrum
5. Upright shoots many branched; leaves linear to needlelike; strobili nodding or pendent at lateral shoot tips.
Palhinhaea
5. Upright shoots not branched; leaves linear-lanceolate to lanceolate; strobili erect on upright shoots.
→ 6
6. Peduncles nearly bare, with few, scattered, scalelike leaves; sporophylls shorter than leaves of peduncles; horizontal stems with lateral leaves larger than median leaves and lying flat on substrate.
Pseudolycopodiella
6. Peduncles leafy with crowded unmodified leaves; sporophylls equaling or longer than leaves of peduncles; horizontal stems with leaves monomorphic, supine or arching.
Lycopodiella
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2, p. 18. Authors: Warren H. Wagner Jr., Joseph M. Beitel.
Parent taxa Lycopodiaceae > Huperzia
Sibling taxa
H. appalachiana, H. haleakalae, H. miyoshiana, H. occidentalis, H. porophila, H. selago
Subordinate taxa
Diphasiastrum, Huperzia, Lycopodiella, Lycopodium, Palhinhaea, Phlegmariurus, Pseudolycopodiella
Synonyms Lycopodium lucidulum, Urostachys lucidulus
Name authority (Michaux) Trevisan: Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. 17: 248. (1875) Mirbel
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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).



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