Lycopodium involvens Swartz

Main stem erect, ascending, 15–45 cm long from a very widely creeping branching rhizome; stems unbranched for lower half, copiously flabellately branched above, the branchlets curled up in dry weather. Leaves on lower part of stem uniform, ovate, 3 x 2.2 mm, clasping, auricled at base, nearly equal-sided with definite midrib, ciliolate-denticulate, acute or aristate; lateral leaves ovate to ovate-triangular, 2 x 1.5 mm with faint false nerves, falcate-acute at the apex, oblique at the base, spreading outwards, inner half-leaf semi-ovate, dilated and distantly serrulate at base, outer half-leaf entire; median leaves smaller, narrowly ovate, 1–1.7 mm long, 0.5–0.7 mm wide, acute at apex, cuneate at the base, pointing upwards, entire or minutely denticulate-ciliate, falsely 2-nerved by two longitudinal grooves reaching from base to apex; axillary leaves ovate, unequal-sided, acute at the apex, minutely ciliate. Strobili quadrangular, (2–)5–8 mm long, 1–2 mm wide. Sporophylls uniform, ovate, ± 1 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, acute to acuminate-aristate at the apex, minutely ciliate-denticulate.

Locally naturalised

Amani, grounds of Research station, presumably originally cultivated in the fernary.

China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Ryuku Isl., south to Sulawesi, locally naturalised in Amani in Tanzania.

Tanzania .

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