See text Lycopodium (from Greek lykos, wolf and podion, diminutive of pous, foot)[2] is a genus of clubmosses, also known as ground pines or creeping cedars,[3] in the family Lycopodiaceae.

[7] The kidney-shaped (reniform) spore-cases (sporangia) contain spores of one kind only, (isosporous, homosporous), and are borne on the upper surface of the leaf blade of specialized leaves (sporophylls) arranged in a cone-like strobilus at the end of upright stems.

The prothallium developed from the spore is a subterranean mass of tissue of considerable size, and bears both the male and female organs (antheridia and archegonia).

[11][5] In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the broadly defined genus is equivalent to the subfamily Lycopodioideae, and Lycopodium is one of 16 genera in the family Lycopodiaceae, with between 9 and 15 species.

herb has been used in the traditional Austrian medicine internally as tea or externally as compresses for treatment of disorders of the locomotor system, skin, liver and bile, kidneys and urinary tract, infections, rheumatism, and gout,[12] though claims of efficacy are unproven.