Ecology: amongst mosses and liverworts; threatened.
Region: New Zealand; uncommon in Australia, Tasmania.
Habitat: peat bogs; coastal or lowland; naturally open, nutrient starved, permanently damp ground; sites cleared by fire; intolerant of competition from taller plants; water saturated clay within gum land
BotanyFern; clubmoss; yellow-green to green; prostrate; shortly creeping clubmoss; forming diffuse patches.
Root: stout; peg-like; white.
Stem: 2 to 20 cm long; forking, rooting at intervals; aerial stems unbranched, 3 to 6 cm long, surmounted by fertile cones.
Leaves: sterile ones spirally arranged,± 0.5 mm long, linear, appressed, loosely imbricating, on prostrate stems, spreading on aerial stems.
Cones: up to 3 cm long; solitary; terminal; erect; sessile; green when immature, yellow-green on maturity.