Diphasiastrum digitatum

Fan Clubmoss

Fan Clubmoss
Photo © by Earl J.S. Rook

Flora, fauna, earth, and sky...
The natural history of the northwoods

Name:

• Diphasiastrum, from the generic name Diphasium, and astrum, "inferiority or partial resemblance", hence, "false Diphasium"
• digitatum, from the Latin, "fingered"
• Other common names include: Running Pine, Southern Running Pine, Southern Ground Cedar, Trailing Ground Pine, Crowfoot Clubmoss, Flattened Clubmoss, Lycopode en éventail (Qué)

Taxonomy:

• Kingdom Plantae, the Plants
• Division Lycopodiophyta, the Clubmosses
  • Class Lycopodiopsida, the Clubmosses
    • Order Lycopodiales, the Clubmosses
      • Family Lycopodiaceae, the Clubmosses
        • Genus Diphasiastrum, the Ground Cedars
• Taxonomic Serial Number: 512327
• Also known as Lycopodium digitatum, Lycopodium complanatum var. flabelliforme, Lycopodium flabelliforme
• Long confused with the circumboreal Common Ground Cedar (Diphasiastrum complanatum).

Description:

• A creeping, evergreen, rhizomatous clubmoss; giving the appearance of neat and orderly, miniature trees.
• Vertical stem branching regularly successively to three times
  • branchlets very regularly fan-shaped, generally on a horizontal plane, flat in cross section, blade-like, their undersides dull, pale, flat; their uppersides green, flat, shiny.
  • annual bud constrictions very rare.
• Horizontal stem on or just below the surface
• Cones 2-4 per upright shoot, ½"-1½" long exclusive of elongated sterile tip which occurs on about half the specimens. Cone is blunt if sterile tip absent. Cone stalks, generally 2, 1¾"-5" long.

Identification:

• Identifiable as a Ground Cedar (Diphasiastrum species) by its scale-like leaves.
• Distinguished from Blue Ground Cedar (Diphasiastrum tristachyum) by its blade-like ultimate branchlets, flat in cross section. The Blue Ground Cedar has cord-like ultimate branchlets which are square in cross section.
• Distinguished from common Ground Cedar (Diphasiastrum complanatum) by its very regularly fan-shaped branchlets. Common Ground Cedar forms tangled masses of branchlets.
• Field Marks
  • fan-shaped branches on horizontal plane
  • branchlets blade-like with flat cross section
  • medium green, not blue green in color
  • shallow rhizome

Distribution:

• Ontario to Newfoundland, south to Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
• The most abundant species of Diphasiatrum in North America
• At the northwestern limit of its range in the BWCA.

Habitat:

• Dry to moist sandy to silty areas in coniferous and mixed forests.
• Coniferous and hardwood forests and second growth, shrubby or open fields

Fire:

Associates:

History:

Uses:

• Much used for holiday decoration as wreaths.

Reproduction:

Propagation:

• Very difficult.

Cultivation:

• Clubmosses can make attractive ground covers, but they do not transplant well

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