Plant Name

Scientific Name: Lycopodiella cernua

Common Names: Staghorn Clubmoss, Wawae'iole, Christmas Tree Clubmoss, Nodding Club-moss

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb

Hawaii Native Status: Native (indigenous)

Flower Color: Non-flowering

Height: Up to 39 inches (1 m) tall or more

Description: The plants are terrestrial and spread by creeping horizontal stems up to 16 feet (5 m) long or more. The branchlets (upright stems) are green to yellow-green, repeatedly branched like deer antlers, and covered with spirals or whorls of tiny leaves. The leaves are shiny, green to yellow-green, narrowly triangular to linear-awl-shaped, point-tipped, and curved toward the stem tip. The strobili (cone-like reproductive spore bodies) at the stem tips are pale yellow, cylindrical in shape, and nodding. The plants look and feel like miniature Christmas trees.

Here in Hawaii, Staghorn Clubmoss grows in bogs and in wet to mesic (moderately wet) forests.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Division: Lycopodiophyta – Lycopods
Class: Lycopodiopsida
Order: Lycopodiales
Family: Lycopodiaceae – Club-moss family
Genus: Lycopodiella Holub – clubmoss
Species: Lycopodiella cernua (L.) Pic. Serm. – staghorn clubmoss