Lycopodium fastigiatum sensu Spring, non R. Br.; L. heterophyllum Hook. & Grev.; L. venustulum var. herpeticum Hillebr.; L. vo/ubile sensu Hillebr., non G. Forst.

Indigenous

Latin venustus, lovely, beautiful, + ulus, a diminutive suffix.

Plants trailing on ground. Horizontal stems creeping, with unequal forkings, resulting in creeping, horizontal stems and upright stems with branches arising at about 45° angle, with one form with strictly upright branches arising at acute angles from stem, forming a dense, columnar, tightly packed cluster with nearly straight, overlapping leaves. Sterile leaves on upright stems linear, needlelike, 4-6.5 mm long, with hairlike tips, not overlapping. Strobili 3-6, 3-15 x 0.4-0.7 cm, on unequally 1-to 3-branched stalks, stalks 5-20 x 0.1-0.2 cm, leafless. Fertile leaves shorter and wider than sterile leaves, ovate-lanceolate, margins serrate to dentate, tips long, hairlike.

Found in wet forests and shrub lands in the wet mid-elevation zone and up into the mesic dry subalpine zone, 825-2,135 m, all major islands. On O'ahu, present only near the summit of Ka'ala and probably absent from the Ko'olau Mountains. An upright variety, Lycopodium venustulum var. verticale, is found on Mauna Loa on Hawai 'i.

Lycopodium venustulum is also found in the South Pacific in the Society Islands, Samoa, and Rapa. It is very closely related to, and possibly identical with, the nearly cosmopolitan L. clavatum. Future careful morphologic review as well as DNA and isozyme studies are needed to clarify this relationship.

Lycopodium venustulum may be recognized by its long horizontal stems and vertical stems clothed with needlelike leaves with hairlike tips, and strobili borne on long, branched stalks.