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Phyum Lycophyta (or Lycopodophyta) -- club mosses or ground pines or lycopods
Lycophyta comprises only five or six extant genera (many more extinct taxa) of which three occur in Texas. Lycopodium is common in east Texas, Isoetes occurs on granite outcrops in the hill country; Selaginella occurs throughout the state, although some species are easily mistaken for mosses.

Lycopodium is homosporous--all spores are roughly equal in size. Selaginella and Isoetes are heterosporous--spores are of two distinct sizes, microspores and megaspores.

Genus Isoetes


Isoetes, Enchanted Rock, Texas
(often mistaken for wild onion)