Rock Tassel fern Lycopodium (Huperzia squarrosa)

• This is an ancient group of fern allies, which has declined dramatically since their peak in the Carboniferous era. 

• The rock tassel fern (Huperzia squarrosa), which grows in the Wet Tropics today, is very similar to 415 million-year-old fossils from Victoria.

• Tassel ferns are epiphytes, with long dangling stems.

•  Some end in long tassel-like ‘clubs’, which are the spore-bearing cones, rather than those on staginella.

• However in H. squarrosa the fertile spore-bearing leaves are the same as the normal leaves, a characteristic considered very primitive and indicative of its ancient lineage.

• Related to the tassel ferns is a vigorous scrambling ground-creeping version (Lycopodium cernuum), which is common along sunny roadsides. 

• It looks like a tiny pine tree with little cones on the erect branches.
  Courtesy of: Environmental Protection Agency, Cairns.

• Also known as the ‘Water Tassel’ or the ‘Rock Tassel’, it is characterized by the following:

• Stems pendent or arching, much branched, up to 60 cm long; leaves up to 1.2 cm long, very crowded, pale yellow-green, linear-acuminate with a long, pointed apex, spreading. 

• Sporangia borne in the bases of the upper leaves, kidney-shaped, bright yellow; sporophylls smaller and less spreading than basal leaves, crowded.

•   It is a very popular species, which is widely cultivated as a basket plant throughout eastern Australia, with some magnificent specimens to be seen in council conservatories etc. 

• It grows on trees in low-land swamps and rainforests and appears to be quite rare in its native habitat.

Confusing species:

•  None.

Distinguishing Features: 

• The spreading, acuminate, pale-green leaves. 

• The partially differentiated sporophylls crowded at the tips.

  Distribution: 

• North-eastern Qld.

Cultivation: 

• As for other tassel ferns. 

• Requires heat in southern Australia.
  Jones.D.L, Clemesha. S.C., Australian Ferns and Fern Allies, 1980.

 Additional Information:

• 'Tassel ferns' Huperzia/Lycopodium spp. are small leaved plants that hang down from trees as epiphytes, thus resembling tassels decorating the rainforest canopy (left).

• They can easily be seen in the Daintree lowlands, such as along Mossman River.

Script: Courtesy of  Damon Ramsey BSc.(Zool) Biologist Guide