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Dendrolycopodium obscurum
Also called Flat Branched Tree Clubmoss, Princess Pine, Ground Pine, Rare Clubmoss, Common Ground Pine
Flat Branched Ground Pine is a small, creeping North American clubmoss, a species in the Lycopodiaceae family, that looks like a miniature conifer and rarely grows over 15 cm tall. It thrives in cool, shaded woodland understory and is best left in the wild, since it is protected in some states.
Dendrolycopodium obscurum, synonym Lycopodium obscurum, commonly called rare clubmoss, ground pine, or princess pine, is a North American species of clubmoss in the family Lycopodiaceae. It is a close relative of other species such as D. dendroideum and D. hickeyi, also treelike. It is native to the eastern United States and southeastern Canada from Georgia to Minnesota to Nova Scotia. It grows in the understory of temperate coniferous and deciduous forests, where it is involved in seral secondary succession, growing in clonal colonies some years after disturbance has occurred. It has also been found in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Russian Far East, and northeastern China.
Historically, Dendrolycopodium obscurum has been harvested from the wild for use as Christmas greens for wreaths, as well as the use of its spores for flash powder. While flash powder is now practically obsolete, the harvest of D. obscurum has caused it to become threatened in several areas, leading Indiana and New York to declare it protected by state law. When harvesting legally, it is recommended to cut the shoots using shears to minimize rhizome damage, alternate sites every year, and select only individuals possessing strobili with open sporophylls. This ensures that immature shoots are not harvested, and will be allowed an attempt at reproduction.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dendrolycopodium obscurum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
