The group originated over 400 million years ago in the Paleozoic and the phylum is the oldest group of vascular plants that still has members today. The group has a relatively large sporophyte and hard-to-find gametophyte that is small, uncommon and. Like all plants, club mosses exhibit alternation of generations. Note the terminal spore producing strobili and the stems with little branching. But in the past members of the group were much larger and formed forests. A common club moss of the Adirondacks: bristly club moss, Lycopodium annotinum. All members of the group that exist today are small plants, typically less than 10 cm in height. Several species are frequently encountered in the common understory forests of the Adirondacks of New York and in forests in New England. As is the case with many of the ferns the common names for club mosses have been much more stable than the scientific names, several of which have been changed in the last thirty years. World-wide there are around 1000 species in the group. \)Ĭlub mosses are representatives of the Lycopodiophyta, plants that are very important in the fossil record and in the history of plant life but are not particularly diverse or common now.
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