Horizontal stems strongly arching, 5--40 X 0.8--1.1 cm, rooting at tip; stems (excluding leaves) 2--4 mm diam.; leaves monomorphic, spreading to ascending, 5--7 X 0.5--0.7 mm, marginal teeth 1--7 per side. Peduncles 1--3 per plant, 6--30 X 0.2--0.3 cm; strobilus 1/3--1/7 total length; leaves spreading to ascending, 6--7 X 0.3--0.5 mm, marginal teeth 1--10 per side. Strobili 20--60 X 12--20 mm. Sporophylls wide-spreading, 6--7 X 0.5--0.9 mm, marginal teeth 1--5 per side in proximal 1/2. 2 n = 156. Bogs, marshes, ditches, borrow pits; 0--600 m; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tex., Va.; West Indies in Cuba.
Sterile stems proximally arching, then recurved to the ground and distally prostrate and rooting, mostly 2-3+ mm thick (excl. lvs), the lvs many-ranked, twisted into a ±erect position so that the upper side of the stem looks densely spreading-leafy and the lower side nearly bare, all linear-subulate, 6-7 נ0.6-1 mm, strongly ciliate-denticulate; fertile stems erect, 1-2.5 dm, the densely crowded lvs to 11 mm; cones sessile, 2-6 cm, 1-2 cm thick; sporophylls green, linear- subulate, 6-11 mm, widely spreading, not much enlarged at the base, strongly ciliate to above the middle; sporangia globose, 0.8-1 mm thick; spores as in no. 6 [Lycopodium inundatum L.]; 2n=156. Bogs and moist banks in acid soil; Mass. to Fla. and Tex., chiefly on the coastal plain, but disjunct in the Cumberland mts.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.