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1 Leafy stems prostrate or erect, if erect then generally branched, the ultimate branches spreading (horizontal) or ascending; sporophylls differing from sterile leaves, either broader and shorter, or more spreading, and aggregated into strobili (cone-like structures) borne terminally on the stems or branches; lacking vegetative reproduction by gemmae. | |
2 Leaves herbaceous, pale or yellow-green, dull, deciduous; principal leafy stems creeping (except erect and repeatedly branched in Palhinhaea); rhizome dying back annually to an underground vegetative tuber at apex; spores rugulate; erect fertile shoots in a single dorsal rank; [wetlands, mostly on moist or wet sands or peats]; [subfamily Lycopodielloideae]. | |
3 Upright shoots not branched; strobili erect on upright shoots, 1.5-80 mm long; [widespread in our area]. | |
4 Leaves of the prostrate stems 0.5-1.2 mm wide, ciliate-toothed or not toothed; leaves of the erect stem many, overlapping, spiral; leaves of the strobilus (sporophylls) resembling leaves of the prostrate and upright stems in size and shape; strobilus 10-80 mm long; upright stems 2-15 mm in diameter (including the leaves) | |
4 Leaves of the prostrate stems 1.3-2.1 mm wide, not toothed; leaves of the erect stem few, not overlapping, whorled; leaves of the strobilus (sporophylls) much reduced relative to leaves of the prostrate and upright stems, their margins entire to minutely denticulate-fimbriate; strobilus 1.5-9 mm long; upright stems 1.5-3 mm in diameter (including the leaves) | |
2 Leaves rigid, bright to dark green, shiny, evergreen; principal leafy stems mainly erect, treelike, fanlike, or creeping (if creeping, then the leaves with elongate, hyaline hair-tips); rhizome perennial, elongate, surficial or subterranean; spores reticulate; erect fertile shoots in 2 dorsolateral ranks; [mostly uplands, in moist to dry soils]; [subfamily Lycopodioideae]. | |
5 Branches 1-5 mm wide (including the leaves), compressed to quadrangular, with 4 ranks of leaves; branching of strobilus stalks dichotomous | |
5 Branches 4-12 mm wide, terete (to somewhat compressed in Dendrolycopodium obscurum), with 6 or more ranks of leaves; branching of strobilus stalks (when present), pseudomonopodial (falsely appearing to have a main axis from which branches arise). | |
7 Erect leafy stems 3-8 mm in diameter (including the leaves), treelike or fanlike, with a definite main axis; leaves acute at the apex; horizontal shoots subterranean, without winter bud constrictions | |
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2 Leaves linear, grass-like, 1-60 cm long, 20× or more as long as wide. | |
5 Leaves 1-12 cm long, spiral-curly; plants terrestrial in peaty substrate, the leaves erect | |
6 Leaves either larger or, if scale-like, with 1 or more nerves and longer than the internodes (the leaves thus overlapping); sporangia yellowish to brownish, 1-locular, < 1 mm in diameter; stems either subterranean or surficial rhizomes or erect or ascending (and sometimes dichotomously branched in whole or in part in Huperzia in HUPERZIACEAE, and Diphasiastrum and Dendrolycopodium in LYCOPODIACEAE). | |
7 Plant with leaves very numerous and overlapping along the creeping, ascending, erect, or pendant stems, the leaves scale-like or awl-like, 0.5-2 (-3) mm wide, typically acute, acuminate, or hair-tipped; sporangia either in terminal strobili (axillary to specialized, smaller leaves) or axillary to normal leaves; [Lycophytes]. | |
8 Sporangia borne in flattened or quadrangular strobili sessile at the tips of leafy branches; spores and sporangia each of two sizes, the megasporangia larger and borne basally in the strobili | |
9 Leafy stems erect or pendant, simple or dichotomously branched, the ultimate branches vertically oriented (upwards or downwards); sporophylls like the sterile leaves or only slightly reduced, in annual bands along the stem; vegetative reproduction by leafy gemmae near the stem apex (Huperzia) or lacking gemmae (Phlegmariurus) | |
10 Leaves palmately lobed. | |
12 Plant with many leaves, generally 5 or more, not divided into separate sterile and fertile segments, the leaves either (a) small, 0.3-1.6 cm long, obovate, scattered along a very thin creeping rhizome, or (b) larger, (2-) 8-30 cm long, cordate at base, the tip long-attenuate (often proliferous, bearing a plantlet at the tip). | |
13 Leaf blades (2-) 8-30 cm long, cordate at the base, the tip long-attenuate, often proliferous (bearing a plantlet at the tip); sporangia grouped into indusiate sori on the undersurface; leaf texture moderately thick; rhizome erect or ascending, 1.0-1.5 mm in diameter, the leaves clustered from its tip | |
13 Leaf blades 0.3-15 cm long, cuneate at the base, acute to rounded or obtuse at the tip, not proliferous; sporangia solitary in a marginal pocket on the leaf; leaf texture very thin; rhizome creeping on the surface of rock or bark, either 0.1-0.3 or 0.5-1.5 mm in diameter, the leaves scattered along it | |
14 Leaf blades 2-15 cm long; sporangia borne in round sori on the lower surface of the leaves; leaf texture herbaceous to subcoriaceous; rhizome 0.5-1.5 mm in diameter |