Every year, I check up on this round stemmed tree moss Dendrolycopodium hickeyi, individual to see if I can spot any new growth on the cliffside matt. This is similar to flat stemmed rare club moss in many ways outside of it’s rounded vs flat basal stem. Dendrolycopodium obscurum and Dendrolycopodium hickeyi are both split from the same complex and usually associated with transient burn ridge pine communities(seral(intermediate secondary) succession) or semi permanent ericaceous burn ridge communities thriving on the duff mat and functionally existing due to pine duff associated mycorrhizal symbiosis. Many grape ferns can also be associated with symbiosis in separate habitats and the association and presence of one(the fern) means the other has to be present. These two tree like species feature one strobilus per strobilusphore(the thing that holds the strobilus) Where as running ground cedar(associated heavily with juniper woodland in alkaline context and majority seral succession(but obviously not limited to that)) Diphasiastrum digitatum, has 4 strobili(plural) per strobilusphore; and as the name suggests, it is stoloniferous and runs creating a darn tootin’ dense mat.