I'm trying to help my 9-year-old son with his science fair project. We were hiking a week ago near where we live in Maryland and learned about the flammable properties of Lycopodium spores. My mom always called this stuff standing pine, and I've heard it called wolf's foot or club moss. You may know that it was used as a flash powder in the early days of photography and in fireworks. My son is still figuring out what exactly is his project involving lycopodium, but anything that goes boom grabs the attention of a 4th grader! I'd like to find an expert we could get on the phone so he could ask a few questions. Can anyone help?
http://chemkitdepot.com/lycopodiumpowder.aspx a young scientist uses lycopodium powder to demonstrate principles of combustion
Two points to bear in mind: 1. It's dangerous 2. It's unethical - Lycopodium are rare, and frequently endangered species
Michael, we have had Lycopodium (or was it Selaginella?) in a post before. I realize that these plants may be infrequent, scarce &/or protected in the UK; however they are quite common & widespread in BC & many parts of North America. To quote eFlora BC for L. clavatum "frequent throughout BC". If you care to visit S.W. B.C. you will find several species of Lycopodium & Selaginella in abundance. I do not know the status in Maryland & would ask WillM to check with local authorities. I am NOT advocating the collection of plants as a general practise, but a small quantity of spores for educational purposes, if the plant is not protected & not growing in a park, seems reasonable to me. BTW Lycopodium powder is used widely for a variety of purposes. a simple net search will turn-up a lot of references. We used it to render sound frequencies visible in high-school physics many years ago.
