Lycopodium holstii Hieron.

Stems pendulous, 12–150 x 2–3.5 cm (including leaves), fleshy and rigid, easily breaking, dichotomously branching; basal stem horizontal, creeping, up to 4 cm long. Leaves 8–10-ranked, very tightly packed, leaves and sporophylls almost identical, fertile area not at all strobiliform, linear-lanceolate in outline (± subulate) up to 2.25 x 1.5–3 mm at the base, very pointed at apex, spreading at up to ± 45°. Sporangia in axils of upper leaves, kidney-shaped, 2.5 mm wide.

holstii: named after C.H.E.W. Holst (1865-1894), German plant collector and horticulturalist.

Mist fores with Syzygium and Araliaceae, Newtonia and Macaranga; forest on very steep almost vertical slopes with Erythrina, Cussonia, etc.; also wet evergreen forest of Afrocrania, Garcinia, Ocotea, Allanblackia, etc.

See African distribution.

Kenya, Tanzania .

Epiphytic, lithophytic.