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Many club-moss gametophytes are mycoheterotrophic and long-lived, residing underground for several years before emerging from the ground and progressing to the sporophyte stage. [4] Lycopodiaceae and spikemosses (Selaginella) are the only vascular plants with biflagellate sperm, an ancestral trait in land plants otherwise only seen in bryophytes.
Club moss spores and teas from plant leaves have been used since ancient times in both American Indian and European cultures. Medicinal uses included treating urinary tract problems, diarrhea and other digestive tract problems; relieving headaches and skin ailments; and inducing labor in pregnancy.
The club-shaped appearance of these fertile stems gives the clubmosses their common name. Lycopods reproduce asexually by spores. The plants have an underground sexual phase that produces gametes , and this alternates in the lifecycle with the spore-producing plant.
The club mosses commonly grow to be 5–20 cm tall. [4] The gametophytes in most species are non-photosynthetic and myco-heterotrophic, but the subfamily Lycopodielloideae and a few species in the subfamily Huperzioideae have gametophytes with an upper green and photosynthetic part, and a colorless lower part in contact with fungal hyphae.
Dendrolycopodium obscurum, synonym Lycopodium obscurum, commonly called rare clubmoss, [2] ground pine, [3] or princess pine, [4] is a North American species of clubmoss in the family Lycopodiaceae. [5]
However, not all heteromorphic gametophytes come from heterosporous plants. That is, some plants have distinct egg-producing and sperm-producing gametophytes, but these gametophytes develop from the same kind of spore inside the same sporangium; Sphaerocarpos is an example of such a plant. In seed plants, the microgametophyte is called pollen.
In Lycopodiella the gametophytes grow on the surface of the soil and are partially photosynthetic. [7] After fertilization, the embryos grow into sporophytes, which are larger spore-bearing plants. [2] The sporophyte is the vegetative part of the plant seen in nature. Juvenile individuals typically re-sprout in the spring or after a fire. [4]
Lycopodium clavatum (common club moss, [3] [4] stag's-horn clubmoss, [5] running clubmoss, [6] or ground pine [7]) is the most widespread species in the genus Lycopodium in the clubmoss family. Description