clubmosses
Primitive vascular groundcover plants
Clubmosses are small, low-growing plants with scale-like leaves densely covering their stems, resembling mosses but more closely related to ferns.
Despite the name, they're not true mosses—they're among the oldest vascular plants on Earth.
They typically grow in moist forest floors and produce spores in club-shaped structures at their stem tips: Clubmosses carpeted the woodland floor.
Forest's lower vegetation tier
- groundcoverLow plants blanketing soil
- shade-tolerantGrows well in shadow
- creepingMoving slowly, stealthily
- mat-formingGrowing in dense sheets
low-growing · trailing · woodland · evergreen · carpet · humus
Asexual reproductive cell
- rhizomeHorizontal underground plant stem
- gametophyteHaploid reproductive generation
- vascularOf blood vessels
- nonfloweringBearing no blooms
Coal-depositing geological period
- PaleozoicEarly complex-life epoch
- DevonianGeologic period, 419-359 million years ago
- SilurianPaleozoic period, mid-range
- PermianLate Paleozoic geological period
paleobotany · fossil · prehistoric · extinct · paleoecology · megaspore · geological · primitive
Nitrogenous plant compound
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- herbalRelating to medicinal plants
- ethnobotanyScience of human-plant relationships
- extractConcentrated derived substance
understory
Forest's lower vegetation tier
- groundcoverLow plants blanketing soil
- shade-tolerantGrows well in shadow
- creepingMoving slowly, stealthily
mat-forming · low-growing · trailing · woodland · evergreen · carpet · humus
spore
Asexual reproductive cell
- rhizomeHorizontal underground plant stem
- gametophyteHaploid reproductive generation
- vascularOf blood vessels
Carboniferous
Coal-depositing geological period
- PaleozoicEarly complex-life epoch
- DevonianGeologic period, 419-359 million years ago
- SilurianPaleozoic period, mid-range
Permian · paleobotany · fossil · prehistoric · extinct · paleoecology · megaspore · geological · primitive · ancestral
alkaloid
Nitrogenous plant compound
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- herbalRelating to medicinal plants
- ethnobotanyScience of human-plant relationships
clubmossesflowering plants
Seed-bearing plants with blooms
angiosperms · seed plants · gymnosperms · deciduous trees · conifers