A (large) number of years ago I was selected to participate in a YSU workshop for middle school science teachers.

The workshop covered three areas of science, and the lab was Mill Creek Park.

Of the three areas, my favorite was botany and much of what I learned then is still with me today.

One requirement of the botany portion was a plant collection representing different plant families. This was not a difficult assignment with one exception … the clubmosses. None of the students in the class knew what to look for.a

Clubmosses and the familiar soft green moss are not the same plant.

Mosses belong to Phylum Bryophyta within the plant kingdom. They are nonvascular and lack roots which means they do not have “indoor” plumbing. They transport water from cell to cell which limits their size and requires they grow in shady, damp environments.

Clubmosses, on the other hand, are lycophytes and do have a vascular system to transport water and nutrients from roots to their tissues.

However, the ones we see today remain small, growing less than a foot tall. Both mosses and clubmosses reproduce by spores rather than seeds, a characteristic also shared by ferns.

The origin of clubmoss is about 410 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs. They were the first vascular plants.

There are still 1,200 species in existence today with 13 in Ohio.

During the carboniferous period, clubmosses thrived in forests of trees reaching heights of 135 feet and diameters of 6 feet.

The warm, humid, swampy conditions during that time provided a perfect environment in which to flourish.

Today’s supply of coal and oil is the result of fossilized clubmoss from that period.

Today’s clubmosses resemble tiny evergreens and some are named as such. The two I see on my woodland hikes are running cedar and princess pine.

These plants have small, scale-like leaves, which have a single strand of vascular tissue. The more complex seed-producing plants have leaves with multiple veins. They are at home in the cool, shaded woodland.

As mentioned before, clubmosses reproduce by spores. They are named for the strobilus structure that contains spores and rises as a stalk or “club” above the plant.

Spore production is a lengthy process, sometimes taking maturing plants up to 20 years. Faster growth is achieved by the spread of underground stems.

Over time plants can resemble an evergreen carpet in the woodland.

Although clubmoss is not a source of food for herbivores, it has historically had some unique uses including as Christmas decor.

Dried spores have been used as fingerprint powder, flash powder in fireworks, machine lubricant and coating on pills.

Each time I pass the patch of running cedar in the woodland, I can’t help but think back to that 1989 workshop that introduced me to the clubmosses.

For more info see: https://go.osu.edu/clubmoss

Steffen is an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.