English: Moellendorff's spikemoss.
Habitat: in moist, shaded environments, forests, woodlands, along stream banks; prefers humid conditions.
Ecology: part of the understory vegetation in forests and provides habitat for various small organisms.
BotanyFern; perennial; lycophyte; small; creeping or ascending; forms dense mats or tufts on the forest floor.
Stems: few cm long; prostrate or ascending; ubiquitous dichotomous branching; usually green; with distinct nodes and segmented internodes, giving the stems a jointed appearance.
Leaves: small, rudimentary; scale-like; spirally arranged; usually lance-shaped or awl-shaped, with pointed apex; one-veined, with membranous margin.
Spores: heterospory; ligule. microphylls;
Reproduction: via spores.
TaxonomyMember of Lycophyta, who first appeared some 400 million years ago, later forming a dominant part of the world's flora during the Carboniferous period.
The nuclear genome size is very small, approximately 100 mega base pairs. It shows that the transition from gametophyte- to sporophyte- dominated life cycle entailed the addition of fewer new genes than the move from nonseed vascular plants to
Angiospermae.
Content: guanine, cytosine content highest of any organellar DNA.