Appearance
Similar to other members of the genus, the sporophyte of "Dendrolycopodium hickeyi" resembles the seedlings of some conifers. The upright sporophytes grow from subterranean horizontal stems, often causing tree club-mosses to be found in clusters. The upright sporophytes have small, green microphylls extending from the ground to the tips of their branches. These plants remain green throughout the winter and in their final year, they produce usually a single, unstalked terminal strobilus from which spores are released."Dendrolycopodium hickeyi" is ostensibly very similar to "D. obscurum" which overlaps with "D. hickeyi" in range. While "D. obscurum" has reduced leaves on the underside of the branches, "D. hickeyi" has leaves of equal length around the branches. "D. hickeyi" can be distinguished from "D. dendroideum", which also has leaves of equal length around their branches, by the orientation of these leaves. "D. hickeyi" and "D. obscurum" both have a single rank of leaves on the top of the branches while "D. dendroideum" has leaves in ranks of two on the top of each branch. "D. hickeyi" also has leaves which are appressed to the stem below the first branches. The strobilus of "D. hickeyi" is also intermediate in length between "D. obscurum" and "D. dendroideum."References:
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