About Huperzia selago (L.) Bernh.
This plant, scientifically named Huperzia selago (L.) Bernh., has a dichotomous stalk that grows 5 to 20 cm tall, with branches that are all equal in length. Its leaves are densely arranged in a spiral pattern; they are flat, needle-like, and 4 to 8 mm long. Sporangia form at the base of leaves on the upper portion of the shoot, and bulbils are often present in the leaf axils. It is a circumpolar species distributed across the northern regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. It grows in sandy pits, ditches, lakeshores, heathland, and conifer swamps. In the northeastern United States, it occurs only in boreal habitats, and does not grow in alpine zones. In Europe, its range stretches from Svalbard to the mountains of northern Spain and Italy, and extends east from the British Isles through central Asia to the Kamchatka Peninsula, Japan, the Aleutian Islands, North America, Greenland, and Iceland. Upper Tanana Indians used the whole plant made into a poultice applied to the head to treat headaches. In Finnish traditional medicine, this plant has been used as a treatment for rickets, as an emetic, and as a remedy against maggots. This plant is toxic and contains lycopodium alkaloid.
