Phlegmariurus carinatus(Desv.) Ching

WFO wfo-0001125431 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Phlegmariurus carinatus, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. a Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-05-03 / obs. 72424344
Phlegmariurus carinatus, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. b Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 72424348
Phlegmariurus carinatus, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. c Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 72424357

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.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Phlegmariurus carinatus is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Malaya, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Queensland, Cook Is., Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastTaiwanBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoMalayaMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoNicobar Is.Cook Is.SamoaVanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Phlegmariurus carinatus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bismarck Archipelago BIS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Cook Is. COO PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
New Caledonia NWC
Samoa SAM
Santa Cruz Is. SCZ
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Not drawn on the map: Santa Cruz Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 45 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.3 °C 12.2 °C 19.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.5 °C 28.6 °C 30.3 °C
Annual rainfall 2,041 mm 3,536 mm 5,008 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 102 mm 281 mm 761 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 45 research-grade observations of Phlegmariurus carinatus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 26 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.

  • Huperzia albescens (F.M.Bailey) Holub
  • Huperzia carinata (Desv. ex Poir.) Trevis.
  • Huperzia laxa (C.Presl) T.Sen & U.Sen
  • Huperzia laxa (C.Presl) Trevis.
  • Huperzia struthioloides (C.Presl) Rothm.
  • Huperzia vanikorensis (Copel.) Holub
  • Lycopodium acrostachyum Hook. & Grev.
  • Lycopodium albescens F.M.Bailey
  • Lycopodium carinatum Poir.
  • Lycopodium carinatum var. minus Tagawa
  • Lycopodium flagellaria Bory
  • Lycopodium laxum C.Presl
  • Lycopodium pendulum Roxb.
  • Lycopodium struthioloides C.Presl
  • Lycopodium struthioloides var. margaritae Nessel
  • Lycopodium urostachyum Wall.
  • Lycopodium urostachyum Wall. ex Ridl.
  • Lycopodium vanikorense Copel.
  • Phlegmariurus laxus (C.Presl) Satou
  • Selaginella struthioloides Underw.
  • Urostachys albescens (F.M.Bailey) Herter
  • Urostachys carinata (Desv. ex Poir.) Herter ex Nessel
  • Urostachys carinatus (Desv. ex Poir.) Herter ex Nessel
  • Urostachys carinatus (Desv. ex Poir.) Herter

and 2 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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