Common names: wawae 'iole (rat's foot), huluhulu a 'iole (hair like a rat's), hulu 'iole (rat's hair)

Indigenous        

Latin cernuus, drooping, nodding, in reference to the nodding strobili of this plant. Plants terrestrial. Stems upright to 1 m tall, 3.5-4 mm in diam. (including leaves), gradually smaller toward tips, repeatedly branching up to 5 x, starting 3-12 cm above horizontal stem, branches numerous, spreading or ascending, drooping at tips. Sterile leaves spreading to ascending, irregularly and spirally arranged in 8 ranks, narrowly linear, needlelike, 2-5 mm long, margins entire, recurved at bases, incurved at tips; fertile leaves in strobili ovate, pale yellow, irregthan sori. Strobili at ends of short branches, sessile, nodding, oblong, 4-9 mm long. Sori globular at upper bases of fertile leaves.

Common in diverse habitats but prefers wet areas, often growing in shrublands or among tall grasses on open, wet mountain ridges and in montane bogs, 15-2,135 m, all major islands. This showy plant is a common species in the Tropics and subtropics throughout the world. The early Hawaiians treated rheumatic patients by bathing affected areas with a preparation of wawae'iole that had been boiled for three hours.

Lycopodiella cernua may be recognized by its small, erect, treelike, multibranching stems; narrow, needlelike, spreading leaves with incurved tips; and short, nodding, down-pointing strobili at the tips of short branches.