Shining Club Moss (Lycopodium lucidulum)

Dark green and super shiny all year, this plant is one of many that are easier to find in winter. Unlike other club mosses in Indiana, it does not produce a strobilus (cone-like structure bearing sporangia). Instead, sporangia are borne in leaf axils along the stem. Another interesting variation is its production of gemmae - little vegetative propagules that fall off, take root, and produce new plants. Shining Club Moss grows in high quality swamp forests on mossy hummocks, and occasionally on slopes in mesophytic woods. Photos from a steep, riparian slope at Warren Woods in Berrien County, Michigan.