''Diphasiastrum complanatum'', common names groundcedar, creeping jenny, or northern running-pine, is a species of

clubmoss Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...

native to dry coniferous forests in colder northerly parts of the world. Under the original name ''Lycopodium complanatum'', this was an inclusive superspecies that included a number of other species now known to be biologically separate.

Distribution

As the species is currently recognized, it has been found in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...

, northern and central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

including montane regions of the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...

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, China, Japan, India, Thailand, and the northern United States.

Description

''Diphasiastrum complanatum'' is a perennial herb spreading by means of stolons that run along the surface of the ground. Above-ground stems tend to branch within the same geometric plane (hence the specific epithet "''complanatum''," meaning "same plane").

Strobili A strobilus (plural: strobili) is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem. Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to th ...

are vertical borne in groups of up to 4 at the ends of some of the branches.Wilce, J. H. 1965. Section ''Complanata'' of the genus ''Lycopodium''. Beih. Nova Hedwigia 19: i--ix, 1--233, plate 40.

References

complanatum Flora of North America Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Europe Flora of Asia {{Lycophyte-stub