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Huperzia phlegmaria (L.) Rothm.

Lycopodiaceae · Guinea, Liberia +41

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.0°C
Record low 14.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,259mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Phlegmariurus phlegmaria, synonym Huperzia phlegmaria, commonly known as either coarse tassel fern or common tassel fern, is an epiphytic species native to rainforests in Madagascar, some islands in the Indian Ocean, Asia, Australasia and many Pacific Islands. Phlegmariurus phlegmaria is commonly found in moist forests and rainforests at high altitudes, in and amongst mosses and other epiphytes. Members of the order Lycopodiales are commonly referred to as clubmosses.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Phlegmariurus phlegmaria", CC BY-SA 4.0; its title is one of this species' older names (GBIF Backbone), which is the proof that the article is this species'.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,384 mm of 3,129 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 4.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

Rain

3,129 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,384 mm of it October to May. Wettest month January at 386 mm, driest month August at 171 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,653 mm to 4,504 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,259 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,129 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.0 °C, the absolute minimum 14.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.6 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 12.4 °C to 24.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.5 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -544 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Huperzia phlegmaria through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 18.6 °C; 3,129 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER14.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 26–36RH 67–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 144 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 22–2927 / 22–2927 / 22–2926 / 22–2926 / 21–2825 / 20–2824 / 19–2825 / 20–2826 / 20–2827 / 21–2927 / 22–2928 / 22–30
Night °C22 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2521 / 16–2520 / 15–2519 / 13–2519 / 12–2419 / 13–2420 / 14–2421 / 14–2421 / 15–2522 / 15–25
Rain mm386 / 214–555381 / 198–608353 / 203–574296 / 142–457262 / 68–371194 / 34–344182 / 28–365171 / 23–340198 / 12–359212 / 30–378220 / 82–383274 / 181–435
DLI34 / 27–3933 / 27–3733 / 27–3731 / 27–3428 / 24–3226 / 23–3127 / 23–3131 / 26–3435 / 30–3936 / 30–4336 / 28–4434 / 27–42
RH %70 / 66–7370 / 66–7370 / 65–7370 / 65–7470 / 65–7469 / 64–7468 / 64–7467 / 63–7367 / 62–7368 / 63–7368 / 64–7369 / 65–73

Records on both sides of the equator: the 19 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 144 cells that remain: the 58 at least 10° south and the 86 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 144 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (153 records in those cells; 12 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1923:6521 (-6.175, 146.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 144 distinct grid cells holding 153 of the 185 in-range records (12 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (19 cells poleward of 10° north, 58 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1923:6521 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -6.00_146.250, lapse-corrected -544 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 692 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 7448919 (Phlegmariurus phlegmaria (L.) Holub, 1616 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeGuinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Comoros, Madagascar, Réunion, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker24.846, 121.505 · in the densest population, 234 records (27% of those in range)
Extinct inRodrigues · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 864 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 153 of them in the land cells it reads, of 185 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 608 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2216 km away. 223 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 679 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7448919 (Phlegmariurus phlegmaria (L.) Holub): Kew's file holds it as Phlegmariurus phlegmaria (L.) Holub (synonym under Huperzia phlegmaria (L.) Rothm.); 1,616 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 864 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Diplazium proliferum Diplazium proliferum Athyriaceae Photo: CC BY, Nina Kerr Phymatosorus membranifolius Polypodiaceae Falcataria falcata Falcataria falcata Moluccan albizia Photo: CC0, author not statedHeptapleurum ellipticum Heptapleurum ellipticum Climbing umbrella tree Photo: CC0, author not statedBulbophyllum apodum Bulbophyllum apodum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, RudolphousFicus subulata Ficus subulata Moraceae Photo: CC BY, portioid

Other Huperzia 19 in the reference

Huperzia carinata Huperzia carinata Lycopodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, MokkieHuperzia crassa Huperzia crassa Lycopodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Haplochromis Huperzia dacrydioides Lycopodiaceae Huperzia fordii Huperzia fordii Lycopodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Keisotyo Huperzia goebelii Lycopodiaceae Huperzia hippuris Lycopodiaceae Huperzia lucidula Huperzia lucidula Shining fir-moss Photo: CC BY, Steven Lamonde Huperzia megastachya Lycopodiaceae Huperzia miyoshiana Huperzia miyoshiana Pacific firmoss Photo: CC BY, Noah How Huperzia nummulariifolia Lycopodiaceae Huperzia obtusifolia Lycopodiaceae Huperzia phlegmarioides Huperzia phlegmarioides Lycopodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz all 20 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Urostachys simonii; Lycopodium phlegmaria var. feejeense; Lycopodium horizontale var. submoniliforme; Lycopodium phlegmaria var. parvifolium; Huperzia feejeensis and 8 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Lycopodiaceae
Described by
(L.) Rothm.
Native to
Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone +40
Wild records
864 in range · 608 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Huperzia phlegmaria (L.) Rothm. (plant_name_id 3140381), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1616 records of GBIF's key 7448919, Phlegmariurus phlegmaria (L.) Holub (Kew's file holds it as Phlegmariurus phlegmaria (L.) Holub (synonym under Huperzia phlegmaria (L.) Rothm.)): the GBIF download; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 7 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -6.00_146.250, lapse-corrected -544 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 169764-3, POWO 169764-3
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Huperzia phlegmaria to Phlegmariurus phlegmaria, an older name of this species (Phlegmariurus phlegmaria)
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…