Lycopodium clavatum (stag's-horn clubmoss)

Plate 1 figs. a–g

Lycopodium clavatum, photographed by Tatiana Strus — fig. a Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-05 / obs. 203559976

Lycopodium clavatum, photographed by Randal — fig. b Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205153299

Lycopodium clavatum, photographed by Lynn Harper — fig. d Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201965483

Lycopodium clavatum, photographed by Timothy McNitt — fig. e Timothy McNitt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202654111

Lycopodium clavatum, photographed by Pierre Cartier — fig. f Pierre Cartier, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202146591

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Spinulum annotinumthis one called it 4x compare

Also published as 74 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

Lepidotis ciliata P.Beauv.
Lepidotis clavata (L.) P.Beauv.
Lepidotis inflexa P.Beauv.
Lycopodium aequale Charit.
Lycopodium amplum Charit.
Lycopodium aristatum Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
Lycopodium aristatum var. desvauxianum Spring
Lycopodium aristatum var. incurvum Grev. & Hook.
Lycopodium aristatum var. robustius Hook. & Grev.
Lycopodium attenuatum Charit.
Lycopodium ciliatum (P.Beauv.) Sw.
Lycopodium clavatum f. brevipedunculatum Louis-Marie
Lycopodium clavatum f. clavatum
Lycopodium clavatum f. decapitatum Louis-Marie
Lycopodium clavatum f. frondescens Vict.
Lycopodium clavatum f. frondosum Vict.
Lycopodium clavatum f. incurvum (Grev. & Hook.) Nessel
Lycopodium clavatum f. robustinus Nessel & Hoehne
Lycopodium clavatum f. robustius (Hook. & Grev.) Nessel & Hoehne
Lycopodium clavatum f. sterilis House
Lycopodium clavatum f. trilobum (Farw.) M.Broun
Lycopodium clavatum subvar. trilobum Farw.
Lycopodium clavatum var. asiaticum Ching
Lycopodium clavatum var. borbonicum Bory

and 50 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.