Fan Clubmoss is the most widespread Lycopodium species on the continent, a low evergreen subshrub that colonizes woodland floors in well-drained, acidic soil from zones 3 to 8. Its long horizontal stems run underground, sending up upright shoots that reach about 8 inches high, each producing a central stem lined with scale-like leaves and lateral branches arranged in flat, fan-like planes that earned it the name Running Cedar. In late summer or autumn, fertile shoots produce cone-like strobili that split open to release spores into the air.

Despite its ubiquity in the wild, Fan Clubmoss is notoriously resistant to cultivation. Transplanting almost never succeeds, and growing mature plants from spores takes up to 20 years — the germinating spore depends on a specific soil fungus to complete its early development underground. It tolerates drought once established in a natural setting, but rarely survives the disruption of being moved. It is a plant to enjoy where it already grows, not one to acquire.