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What's news in nature?
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
DAMP WOODLANDS - Today they are small plants creeping along the forest floor, but millions of years ago, club mosses dominated the plant world and stood as tall as giant trees.
Running cedar, ground cedar, ground pine, tree groundpine, club moss, running clubmoss and wolf's claw - the small, evergreen plants of the genus Lycopodium go by many common names. In the Highlands, most people lump the different species together and call them all running cedar or ground cedar.
Technically, four or more species of Lycopodium occur in this area, mostly in moist woodland environments. The most common is running clubmoss or running cedar, Lycopodium clavatum. Another variety found in this area, tree groundpine, Lycopodium dendroideum, (see photo) looks very much like a small, young pine tree.
Plants that stay green in the winter have fascinated humans for eons. How some plants such as the running cedars can survive the bitter cold of winter while others die or loose their leaves must have seemed miraculous to early societies.
Wreaths and garlands of running cedar and other club mosses have been used for decorations at Christmas and other winter celebrations for thousands of years. In fact, along with habitat loss, gathering of club mosses for decorations has placed the plants at risk of extinction in some states.
Club mosses are not real mosses. As a plant group, they fall between the mosses and ferns in the evolutionary tree. They are considered more advanced than mosses since they have vascular tissue, specialized fluid-conducting tissues similar to those in more advanced flowering plants and trees.
Local club mosses spread along the ground in a vine like manner. They also reproduce and spread by way of spores. The spores are borne in specialized leaves that form cone-like structures called strobili. These structures add to the similarity between the little plants and evergreen trees and also give the group its name.
In addition to wreaths and mantle decorations, club mosses have been used medicinally. The dried spores have been used as an absorbing powder.
More interestingly, a powder of the dried spores, called simply lycopodium, was used during Victorian times by photographers and in special effects in theater productions. The dried spores are highly inflammable. When blown into a cloud and ignited, they burn brightly and rapidly creating a flash with little heat.
Running cedar and other club mosses can be found throughout the Highlands in moist, acidic habitats. They can form large colonies many acres in size or be a few plants scattered around the otherwise brown winter forest floor.
It looks like a young pine tree in the forest leaves of winter, but even though it is an evergreen and named after evergreen trees, the club mosses are not related to trees like pine and cedar. Running cedar is the most common club moss in the Highlands, but a few others like this goundpine are found in this area.
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