Ferns, lycophytes, and their extinct free-sporing relatives
Dendrolycopodium obscurum
Dendrolycopodium obscurum(L.) A.Haines
Family: Lycopodiaceae
[Lycopodium dendroideum var. obscurum (L.) Torr. ex Beck, moreLycopodium obscurum L., Lycopodium obscurum f. breve (Farw.) M.Broun, Lycopodium obscurum f. brevispicatum (Farw.) M.Broun, Lycopodium obscurum f. exsertum Vict., Lycopodium obscurum f. foliaceum (Farw.) M.Broun, Lycopodium obscurum f. monostachyon Vict., Lycopodium obscurum f. parvispicatum (Farw.) M.Broun, Lycopodium obscurum f. proliferum Vict., Lycopodium obscurum var. obscurum]
Prostrate stems deeply subterranean, elongate, branched; erect stems scattered, simple below, freely branched above, to 3 dm, the main axis 2 mm thick, the branchlets terete or flattened; lvs numerous, shining, 6-8-ranked, linear-subulate, all alike or ±dimorphic, 4.6 נ0.8-1.2 mm, entire, firm, sharp-pointed; cones terminating some of the branches; sessile, 1-4 cm, 5-7 mm thick; sporophylls yellowish, broad-based, abruptly acuminate, with hyaline, inconspicuously erose margins; sporangia reniform, 1.5-2 mm wide; spores with the commissural faces more finely reticulate than the outer, otherwise as in no. 9 [Lycopodium annotinum L.]; 2n=68. Moist woods and bog-margins in acid soil; boreal Amer. and Asia, s. in e. U.S. to n. Ga., Ala., Ind., and Mo.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.