Shining Clubmoss is an uncommon clubmoss that is found throughout Maryland. Shining Clubmoss can be found in a variety of habitats including wooded slopes and along stream banks and wooded swamps. Shining Clubmoss is rarely found in open or dry habitats.
Shining Clubmoss is very similar to the extremely rare Rock Clubmoss (Huperzia porophila) which is now considered extirpated in Maryland. Rock Clubmoss should only be expected on the Allegheny Plateau so any Huperzia species seen east of Garrett County is almost certainly Shining Clubmoss. To differentiate between the two Huperzia species we first look at habitat. Shining Clubmoss can be found in a variety of moist wooded habitats while Rock Clubmoss is only found on sandstone cliffs near waterfalls. Secondly, the leaves of the two species are shaped differently (a 10x hand lens helps in observing Huperzia leaves). The leaves of Shining Clubmoss are lanceolate while the leaves of Rock Clubmoss are oblanceolate (meaning the tip of the leaves is rounded/blunt). The leaves of Shining Clubmoss have large serrations along the edge of the leaf while the leaf edges of Rock Clubmoss have few serrations that are very small (Weakley, 2015).
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