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This family contains only a single genus&emdash;Lycopodium, the clubmosses (or, if you're a splitter, three genera, Lycopodium, Lycopodiella and Huperzia). The clubmosses have dichotomously branching stems, sometimes all upright, and sometimes both upright and running along the ground. The upright stems seldom exceed 30 cm tall. Like all the fern allies, Lycopodium reproduce with spores produced in sporangia. The sporangia are sometimes produced individually in the axils of the microphyll leaves (Lycopodium/Huperzia selago), but are more commonly clustered at the stem tips with very reduced leaves (all other species in our region). The powdery spores of the Lycopodiaceae are highly flammable and were used in fireworks, stage lighting and early flash photography. The spores develop into free-living gametophytes; in some species the gametophyte is photosynthetic and grows on the soil surface and in other species it is non-photosynthetic and grows underground. In all cases, natural maturation of the gametophyte apparently requires infection by mycorrhizal fungi. Fertilization requires water to transport sperm to egg.
Several species Lycopodium are found in the forests of the Washington Cascades and Olympics. They are often harvested for decorative greenery, especially around Christmas, and a number of our species are becoming rare because of this exploitation.
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