Hello, Pardon my ignorance if this is an obvious ID, I am no botanist, just a curious amateur naturalist. I found this plant (ground cover) in a boggy area of Bowen Island and have never seen anything like it, the closest guess was Sphagnum Moss but after looking it up I don,t think so. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks M PS it was already broken I did not pick it.
Some kind of fir? Certainly nothing like sphagnum. There is a plant like that used in a newish and very effective cancer medication, called Taxol, and whether the plant is a relative of Taxodium (Bald cypress, a bog tree) or not I don't know, and whether your plant is related I don't know, but I do know Taxol comes from a bog ground cover and is an evergreen conifer.
Lycopodium was my first thought. I think the plant Rima has in mind is the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia. Speaking of plant uses, the spores of Lycopodium used to be popular as a kind of talcum powder. A dust cloud of the spores is highly flammable, though, and people have found safer alternatives. Many years ago I had a summer job at a science museum, and as part of a demonstration, I would puff up lycopodium spores in a plexiglass chamber containing a lit candle. Result: a giant flame worthy of the Wizard of Oz. A big crowd pleaser. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.
