新锐叶石松 xin rui ye shi song

Lycopodium pungens Bachelot de la Pylaie ex Iljin, Fl. URSS 1: 117. 1934, not Alderwerelt (1915).

Stolons slender and creeping, up to 1.4 m, green, with sparse leaves; lateral branches ascending, 8-17 cm tall, 1-3 times forked, sparse, whole branches terete, stem together with leaves 8-12 mm in diam. Leaves spirally arranged, dense, angled upward, acicular, 3-6 × 0.7-1.3 mm, leathery, without transparent hairs, midrib indistinct abaxially, visible adaxially, base cuneate, decurrent, sessile, margin entire, apex acuminate. Strobili solitary, terminal on branchlets, erect, terete, sessile, 2-3.3 cm × ca. 4 mm; sporophylls broadly ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, papery, with broad membranous transparent erose margin, apex acute. Sporangia enclosed.

Forests, forest margins; ca. 1000 m. Heilongjiang [Russia; North America].

Lycopodium canadense Nessel (Revista Sudamer. Bot. 6(5-6): 169. 1940) is possibly conspecific with L. neopungens. More studies are needed.

Lycopodium neopungens is similar to L. annotinum but is smaller with smaller leaves and entire leaf margins.