Luzuriaga parviflora < Species index > Melicope simplex
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 96, # 4, May 2024
May in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Lycopodium volubile, Waewaekoukou, Climbing clubmoss
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Lycopodium is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘wolf foot’, the roots having a resemblance to that animal’s paw; ‘volubile’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘spinning’ or ‘rotating’, referring to the twinning and scrambling habit of growth. Lycopodium species belong to the clubmoss family Lycopodiaceae, one of the families of fern allies. They have a primitive vascular system with unbranched veins in their small leaves and sporangia borne on the upper surface of the leaf, often in cones.
Distribution and habitat
Climbing clubmoss is indigenous to Aotearoa. It grows on Kermadec (Raoul Island), Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island, Rakiura / Stewart Island and Rekohu / Chatham Island. It also grows in south-east Asia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Australia. Typical habitats are more open ridgelines in forests, forest margins, shrublands, roadside banks and cuttings. It can be coastal or montane.
Growth habit
Climbing clubmoss is an herbaceous plant with scrambling and climbing, wiry, branched stems up to 5 m long. The leaves are of two sizes, larger sickle-shaped ones, up to 5 mm long, arranged in two ranks either side of the stem, and much smaller linear, straight ones, 1-2 mm long, appressed to the upper surface of the stem. All leaves are flattened into one plane and are a bright green.
Reproduction
Spores are produced in a single sporangium on the upper surface of each of the smaller, fertile leaves, with these aggregated into pendulous cones / strobili which are up to 80 mm long. Cones may be forked or straight, are yellow-brown, and hang down in clusters on many-branched stalks. They develop all year round. When the sporangia are mature, they split and release thousands of spores. These in turn develop into a minute alternate life-cycle stage which then produces the plant we see and describe.
Uses
We have not found any records of uses of Lycopodium volubile. Please tell us if you know of one.
Where can you find climbing clubmoss?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, more open areas of Wellington bush reserves and secondary growth, regional parks and in the Remutaka, Aorangi, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
Note – The exotic Selaginella krausiana, another fern ally, can be confused with the native clubmosses. It forms loose carpets of ground cover in damp, shaded sites, especially closer to civilisation, inhibiting the establishment of native seedlings. It bears its small cones up to 10 mm long underneath the leaves. Its leaves are up to 4 mm in four rows and the branches are numerous, very short and irregularly branched. Spores and stem fragments are dispersed by wind, boots, feet, stock and machinery.
In The Hills 2024-04 < Index chronological > In The Hills 2024-06