Huperzia selago Fir Clubmoss

Huperzia selago, Fir Clubmoss, is a plant of heath, moorland and mountains in Britain and is most common in the north. In West Glamorgan it occurs in 2 distinct habitats, scree and ledges on north facing scarps e.g. Craig y Llyn, and banks along forest roads and tracks on higher ground. In all of these habitats it has been subject to losses as a result of habitat destruction during forest operations and after fires. Prior to the expansion of forestry in south Wales it may have been more widespread in heather dominated moorland habitats above 300m. Nevertheless, modern forestry in West Glamorgan has provided Fir Clubmoss with refuge sites free from intensive grazing by sheep. It prefers north-facing banks with dwarf shrub heath species such as Calluna vulgaris (Heather) and Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry). Unfortunately, in conifer plantations, those habitats are susceptible to invasion by regenerating Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce) and other conifer species and also to damage by clearfelling and road maintenance operations. As a result, Fir Clubmoss has been lost from a number of its former sites in West Glamorgan in recent decades. Reproduction is by means of spores poduced in sporangia at the tips of the stems and, perhaps more effectively, by bulbils produced below the sporangia.

Native