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Nodding clubmoss (Lycopodiella cernua)

Paku kawat or clubmoss or nodding clubmoss (Lycopodiella cernua) is plant species, terrestrial herbs with main stems creeping indefinitely, rooting at long intervals and at least 40 varieties have been described that are difficult to distinguish.

L. cernua has erect shoots and resembles small pine trees up to 100 cm tall, green and yellow, distal has many branches and arranged opposite, very compound with the ultimate whitish branch and nods down.

Dlium Nodding clubmoss (Lycopodiella cernua)

The leaves are arranged in a spiral, linearly circulated, 2-5 mm long, 0.1-0.3 mm wide, wide widened base, sharp pointed apices, overall margins, thick and stiff but soft, gradually changing from patent-reflexes and somewhat deep on the shoot axis to rise and approach the ultimate branches.

Conical structures that produce spore terminals on branches, sessile, ovoid to ellipsoid, 3-25 long and 1.5-5 mm wide. Sporophylls ovate become deltoid, 2x1 mm, rough and irregularly cut edges and yellowish or greenish.

Sporangium globose, opening with a valve that is very unequal and hidden by the sporophil base. Spores clot with a three-pronged scar and are slightly wrinkled. Nodding clubmoss produces spores throughout the year, but spends the dry season as the tip of the stem is buried while the rest of the plant dies.

The life cycle is somewhat different from true ferns because spores only germinate when covered in soil and total darkness. As they germinate, spores give rise to fleshy gametophytes that contain male and female sex organs.



Paku kawat grow on the edges of forests, secondary forests, margins of swamps, wet grasslands, moist cliff surfaces, hill slopes and mountain slopes to an altitude of 2400 m. Not found in areas with annual rainfall less than 600 mm.

This plant contains alkaloids such as cernuine and lycocernuine, flavonoids apigenin and apigenin-7-glucoside, triterpene serratenediol and aluminum concentrations up to 12.5%. Injections to mice are effective for silicosis. More research into pharmacological potential is needed, considering that many facts have been applied in traditional medicine in many places.

L. cernua applied to wound dressing, anti-lice, as a tonic, overcoming neuralgia, hypertension, ulcers, beriberi, cough and asthma, gum problems, abscesses, diuretics, gout, rheumatic swelling, skin irritation, gonorrhea, vaginal discharge, dysentery, hepatitis and burns.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Lycopodiopsida
Order: Lycopodiales
Family: Lycopodiaceae
Subfamily: Lycopodielloideae
Genus: Lycopodiella
Species: Lycopodiella cernua

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