Huperzia australiana

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Huperzia australiana
Huperzia australiana by Peter de Lange.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Lycophytes
Class: Lycopodiopsida
Order: Lycopodiales
Family: Lycopodiaceae
Genus: Huperzia
Species:
H. australiana
Binomial name
Huperzia australiana
(Herter) Holub
Synonyms
  • Lycopodium australianumHerter

Huperzia australiana is a species of small terrestrial plant, a firmoss, in the Lycopodiaceae (clubmoss) family. It is native to Australia and New Zealand.

Contents

Distribution and habitat

The plant occurs at sheltered sites in subalpine and subantarctic regions, in grasslands and around bogs, up to 2000 m above sea level. [1]

Description

Huperzia australiana has decumbent stems with densely tufted, erect branches up to 300 mm long, usually branched 2 or 3 times. The leaves are crowded, appressed to spreading, 5–9 mm long, 0.5–1.5 mm wide in the middle and tapering to a point. It reproduces vegetatively through the often numerous small bulbils which form along the stem. The sporophylls are similar to the foliage leaves; no strobili are formed; the bright yellow, kidney-shaped sporangia are produced in the upper leaf axils. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Huperzia</i> Genus of vascular plants in the clubmoss family Lycopodiaceae

Huperzia is a genus of lycophyte plants, sometimes known as the firmosses or fir clubmosses; the Flora of North America calls them gemma fir-mosses. This genus was originally included in the related genus Lycopodium, from which it differs in having undifferentiated sporangial leaves, and the sporangia not formed into apical cones. The common name firmoss, used for some of the north temperate species, refers to their superficial resemblance to branches of fir (Abies), a conifer. As of 2020, two very different circumscriptions of the genus were in use. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, Huperzia is one of three genera in the subfamily Huperzioideae of the family Lycopodiaceae. Most species in the subfamily are placed in the genus Phlegmariurus. Huperzia is left with about 25 species, although not all have been formally transferred to other genera. Other sources recognize only Huperzia, which then has about 340 species.

<i>Huperzia porophila</i> Species of spore-bearing plant

Huperzia porophila, the rock clubmoss or rock firmoss, grows throughout the Appalachian province of the Eastern United States and central Canada, from Ontario south to Georgia and Alabama. It is rare east of the Appalachians, being most common in a north–south belt along the western plateau area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lycopodiaceae</span> Family of vascular plants

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References

  1. 1 2 Wilson, Peter G.; Chinnock, R.J. (2000). "Huperzia australiana (Herter) Holub". PlantNET. National Herbarium of NSW: Sydney. Retrieved 2013-02-24.