Some Records of Michigan Ferns and Fern Allies

Abstract

In the western end of Chippewa County, Michigan, adjacent to Highway M-28, about 1.5 miles west of Hulbert, occurs a plant community with an unusual variety of plants. This part of the county is a swampland with intermittent, low, broad, sandy ridges, which are probably old glacial lakeshore deposits. The swampland is dominated almost exclusively by black spruce (Picea mariana), tamarack (Larix laricina), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), while the ridges support scattered pine trees, an abundance of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), and blueberries (Vaccinium spp.). Information from the Michigan State Highway Department indicates that this segment of Highway M-28 was built in 1935. At that time, sand from some of the ridges was excavated for road construction, leaving a sandy, flat surface at the level of the surrounding swampland. This area remains moist most of the year, thus providing a suitable environment for a number of otherwise uncommon species of plants. In the summer of 1954, I discovered this habitat and noted that, among other plants, certain species of club-moss were established there. These were mostly Lycopodium clavatum, L. inundatum, and L. tristachyum, together with another species which I did not recognize. I was unable to collect specimens, however, until the summer of 1956. In September of that year I revisited the area to collect a sample of the unknown clubmoss2. The plant was relocated along the margin of the moist sand-flat, where the latter meets a bank of dry sand, a remnant of a partly removed ridge. After a close examination, the plant was tentatively identified