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Clubmoss: tiny evergreen forests on the winter woodland floor

November to March

Once the oaks and maples are down to bare branches, small patches of evergreen clubmoss stand out against brown leaf litter in eastern Massachusetts woods. They look like miniature pine trees a few inches tall, but they are ancient spore-bearing plants more closely related to ferns than to anything with a cone.

Why this time of year

Leaf fall is finished and the canopy stays open until spring green-up, so for the next four or five months these are the easiest green plants in the woods to find. MassWildlife's own description of the White Pine - Oak Forest, the community that covers much of this area, says the evergreen clubmoss patches are particularly apparent in winter.

How to notice it

  1. Walk any oak or white pine woods trail once the leaves are down, and scan low along the leaf litter instead of looking up.
  2. Look for patches of shiny green a few inches tall. Dense little bottle-brush trees are ground-pine; flat fan-like sprays held out sideways are ground-cedar.
  3. Look for thin upright spore cones standing above the foliage, which is how the plant reproduces since it makes no flowers and no seeds.
  4. Leave them where they are. A patch can take up to 20 years to grow a new mature plant from spores, which is why the old habit of cutting them for holiday greens emptied so many woodlots.

Try this with kids: Can you find a whole miniature forest growing out of the dead leaves, with trees small enough to stand on your hand?

spore cone: the upright club-shaped tip that releases spores, which is what clubmosses make instead of flowers or seeds

Sources

  • mass.govMassWildlife Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Classification of the Natural Communities of Massachusetts, White Pine - Oak Forest (State Rank S5, widespread statewide): 'Evergreen patches of club mosses such as ground-pine (Dendrolycopodium obscurum), southern ground-cedar (Diphasiastrum digitatum), and staghorn clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) are particularly apparent in the winter.'
  • mass.govMassachusetts DCR self-guided trail guide, Myles Standish State Forest, stop 8 'Princess Pine': 'Neither a pine nor a true moss, these plants are more closely related to ferns. It is called a seedless plant as it produces spores, not seeds.'
  • plants.ces.ncsu.eduNC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: the plant stays green all winter; produces strobili on which spore producing packages are formed; ranges the eastern United States from New England to Georgia; often used in Christmas decorations; 'it can take up to 20 years to make another mature plant from spore production and spreading'.

Checked against these sources on September 18, 2026.

In the guide for November, December, January, February, March

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