Species: Pseudolycopodiella caroliniana (L.) Holub (Slender bog club-moss)
During the 2025 field season, myself and colleagues from the Harvard University Herbaria and Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany were lucky enough to secure permits to collect voucher specimens of plants, fungi and bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) on several Massachusetts DCR properties, mostly in Hampshire County.
As the season progressed, I had a hankering to visit a bog, as these are always fascinating habitats to explore in the summer. There did not appear to be any on our current field sites, however. Looking at a map, I noticed a small wildlife management area that seemed to fit the bill, and it was situated directly between two of our field sites – perfect! After gaining permission to make collections on the property, for myself and mycologist Dr. James Mitchell, we set out to explore.
Unfortunately for James, there were little fungi of interest for him that day. But for me, it turned into one of the best field days of the year! As I continued farther out in the bog, leaving James behind as he headed back to dry land, I began to notice a small, bright green plant growing prostrate in wet depressions of the bog mat. I bent down to look, thinking it could be a moss. No, not a moss…I moved on hoping to find more. In another depression I found much more, this time with reproductive structures – strobili which are produced by the lycophytes or fern-allies. As I found more and more of this plant, I made a collection thinking this must be some unusual Lycopodiella I hadn’t heard of. Whatever it was, it was happy here.
Sure enough, when I got home and began researching, the identity of this plant became quite clear – Pseudolycopodiella caroliniana (L.) Holub (Slender bog club-moss)! This plant is endangered in Massachusetts and only known to be extant from two sites in New England, both also in Massachusetts! You just never know what you will find on a day out botanizing.
Slender bog club-moss is a native to the eastern US ranging from east Texas and finding the northern extent of its range in Massachusetts. Harry E. Ahles (1924-1981) first discovered and collected slender bog club-moss in Massachusetts in 1975. This population from Hampshire County was the only known location in New England and the most northern population ever recorded. Within the next five years, the only known site was destroyed by a logging operation, extirpating this species from New England.
In 2019 past NEBS president Matt Charpentier rediscovered this species in Massachusetts in two locations in Worcester Co. This new specimen, albeit almost accidental, represents the fourth collection of the species from the New England region. The specimen is now deposited in the NEBC herbarium.
