Gemmiferous

Extensive patch of shining club-moss

What: While out on the Long Trail this week with the Crow's Path Adventurers camp (photos here), I was able to return to a patch of shining club-moss (Huperzia lucidula) I had noticed last weekend while scouting with Sam. The patch is located at the turn off to Silent Cliff, just north of Middlebury Gap. It's been about 5 years since I looked more intimately at the club-mosses (family Lycopodiaceae), and I was struck by the strong patchiness of the plant - some of the patches were a dense carpet of up to about a half acre, and it was a rare site along the trail to see any growing by themselves. I have in my head images of little cones sprouting from the tips of clubmosses, and was delighted that, upon closer inspection, there were no cones at all, but a new mysterious type of leaf.

Flattened gemmae, or vegetative propagules, that act in the same way as leaves on jade plants

Ecological notes: Turns out members of the Lycopodiaceae genus Huperzia lack the cones, or strobili. Plants with this strong of a predilection for patchiness typically have vegetative reproduction (e.g. spread by underground roots like staghorn sumacs), really heavy seeds that don't disperse terribly far, seeds that get dispersed by non-volant insects (like trilliums and ants), or extremely narrow and extreme habitat requirements (like cattails in marshes or Green Mountain maidenhair fern in serpentine outcrops).

Each band of spores = 1 yr of growth

Shining club-mosses lack creeping rhizomes/underground stems, which other clubmosses (e.g. Lycopodium spp.) spread laterally out along or just beneath the surface of the soil, so they need to accomplish this in another way. In this case, the gemmae, those flat, paddle-like leaves (they almost look like elm seeds) are vegetative propagules that fall off the parent plant. They don't have far to fall and so aren't carried more than a few centimeters at most from the parent plant. The new plant is a genetic clone of the parent and in time will create its own gemmae (always at the tips of new growth).

Also, unlike similar relatives in the genus Lycopodium, whose sporangia (spore clusters) are borne on cones that reach up into the air waiting to be whisked away by wind, Huperzia have sporangia borne on leaf axils (the little notch where the leaf sprouts off the stem). In the photo to the right, these are the clusters of yellowish bean-shaped things running short segments up the stem. Each band of spores represents a single year of growth, giving some sense of maturity.

There is scant literature around the lifespan of shining clubmoss. A related species, Huperzia sa, can reportedly take 15-20 years just to reach maturity. So it appeared from my brief look into their world that wind dispersal doesn't play much of a role and their presence in large, thick patches indicates that they've been around for a long enough time for their vegetative parts to create dense mats. Maybe it's even an indicator of at least secondary growth.

Where: Unlike the other Huperzia sp. that we have in our state which grow on rocks, H. lucidulum grows on soils. Its preference for rich - yet acidic - moist soils under a hardwood or coniferous canopy make it a common denizen of higher elevation woodlands.

Long Trail

What: Last week Brian and I led a three-day backpacking trip for 11 & 12 year olds. We started at Lincoln Gap and finished at Appalachian Gap. We hiked about 14 miles total and stayed at Battell Shelter our first night and Glen Ellen the second night. The video shows some of the scenery and inside of Glen Ellen Shelter.

What else: This blog is primarily run by me, but we also have guest contributors and this fall we'll have students from Crow's Path programs updating it. We volunteer our time because we love sharing the natural world with others. If y'all enjoy it and learn a thing or two about the world around you, it'd be awesome if you could make a small donation by using the link to the right. 100% of donations support our programs directly through buying tools and gear or providing scholarships for kids. Any amount helps.

Ecological notes: On our last day, as one of the kids and I were walking down from Mt Ellen to the parking lot at Appalachian Gap, David asked how far we had to go. He remembered the parking lot at Lincoln Gap is at 2428', and suggested the Appalachian Gap was probably the same (he was right, it's 2375'). To answer his question, I just looked around me. The ridge line (about 3800'-4100' in elevation) smells so pristine with the scents of moss and spruce mixing in the updrafts blowing off the lake. As we descended, I pointed out a new plant that had started to appear, hobblebush. As we looked at the flowers, I told him that it won't grow much above 3000', so just 600' to go to the parking lot. I told him that we'd start seeing beech trees at about 2700' in elevation. I described the smooth gray (gray in America, grey in England) bark, which can look like an elephants foot, and the stiff papery leaves with perfectly straight veins. He spotted the first one, and I told him to keep his eyes peeled for more - 300' to go. The light broke open in the now overwhelmingly deciduous canopy and he started running towards the parking lot.

Where: Lincoln Gap to Appalachian Gap along the Long Trail.

Other notes: I just got back from a 30 mile paddle along the Winooski and saw some amazing things, including a roost of about 25 turkey vultures! I'll post on that in a couple of days.