English: Coarse tassel fern; Common tassel fern.
Synonym: Huperzia phlegmaria.
Genus: over 300 species.
Region: Madagascar, Indian Ocean islands, Asia, Australasia, Pacific Islands; tropical Africa, Cameroon, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda; temperate and tropical Asia, China, southern Japan, Ryukyu Islands, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand; Australasia, New Zealand, Pacific islands.
Habitat: moist forests and rainforests; high altitudes, in and amongst mosses and other epiphytes.
Use: spores in fireworks, flash powders in photography, fingerprint powder; spores to coat pharmaceutical pills.

BotanyIdentification: petiolate sterile microphylls and small fertile microphylls on thin branching strobili.
Fern; clubmoss; epiphytic; variable; resembles mosses.
Root: true root systems.
Stems: elongated; aerial, hanging from host trees; up to 80 cm long.
Leaves: coriaceous (resemble leather); spirally arranged; lanceolate; narrow; rounded at the base, narrower at the extreme base.
Sporophylls: club shaped, highly flammable.
Sporangia: located in the fertile zone of the stem.
Spores: homosporous; produced in axils; highly inflammable; tetrahedral; 37 by 35 μm; off-white; angles never exceeding 130°.