OBSERVING LIFE
WITH LYCOPODS
Lycopods... They’re weird, they’re bizarre, and they’ve had a profound impact on shaping the climate... and continue to shape it. These ancient plants hold secrets of resilience and survival, yet remain largely unknown.
This is a beginning to document lycopod research in Lithuania, highlighting the importance of fundamental botanical science, learning from botanists and deepening our understanding of these remarkable plants.
At the end, you’ll find an invitation to join speculative walks & talks exploring the social life of lycopods.
INTRO-
DUCTION
LYCOPODS-
WHO?
Lycopods aren’t the plants you’ll casually stumble upon in urban landscapes; you need to know exactly where to find them. Their nature is opportunistic, persistent, and deceptively clever — like chemical wizards cloaked in invisibility, they seem to prefer staying hidden.
Botanists in Lithuania are diving into these mysteries of lycopods — how on Earth are they still thriving? How do they generate an understanding of changing environments? Do they have a social life?
As one of the oldest and most enduring plant lineages, lycopods have weathered 300 million years of Earth’s changes — from mass extinctions to climate extremes.
Artist's impression of a Lepidodendron, lycopods ancestor, by Tim Bertelink
But they weren't always so elusive. In the Carboniferous era, lycopods stood tall — some, like Lepidodendron, reached up to 50 meters. When these giants died, they fell into swamps, becoming buried under layers of mud and dirt. Over time, the Earth’s heat and pressure transformed these ancient lycopods into the coal we use today.
Hello, I'm northern firmoss (Huperzia selago). If you're looking for a speaker at the longevity conference, I'm all yours!
MEET THE BOTANISTS
Lycopods have something. What is it about lycopods that they seduce scientists to study them?
"I was first introduced to Lycophytes by my supervisors over ten years ago when I began my doctoral studies. Initially, I was skeptical.
These small, ancient plants’ gametophytes didn’t seem to hold the secrets of grand ecosystems or be part of cutting-edge research.
My early days were filled with meticulous, laborious work that didn’t always spark excitement. For the first few years, lycophytes felt like a distant puzzle.
But, like all meaningful relationships, as I dug deeper (literally and figuratively), I began to uncover the fascinating intricacies of these ancient survivors.
It took me about three years to truly fall in love with these plants, but my passion for them deepens with each passing year.
Lycopods possess a quiet magic that reveals itself only after you've taken the time to explore their world."
Dr. Radvile Rimgaile-Voicik
More awesome botanists will be introduced soon.
Scroll down to discover the key research themes on Lycopods in Lithuania↓
WHAT'S THE STORY OF THE UNDERSTORY?
Radvilė investigates the roots of ground pines (Diphasiastrum) to study their mycorrhizal connections with pines and blueberries.
This research aims to uncover the nature of these relationships — whether they are short or long-term— and identify if there are any specific fungi involved in these interactions.
Understanding these connections could enhance our knowledge of forest resilience/forest health.
How and with whom do they make relationships?
To study forest health, it's important to study lycopods, as they play a crucial role in the forest ecosystem. Understanding their underground relationships is essential, yet these connections remain largely unresearched and poorly understood — a true terra incognita.
Anita looks for stiff clubmoss (Lycopodium annotinum) roots to investigate their elemental and isotopic composition to learn about forest health. This would allow us to better understand the biological and ecological intricacies of forest plants and their role in maintaining ecosystem stability.
THE PRIVATE LIFE
One of the coolest things about lycopods is how they secure future generations, sexually😏. It's mindblowing, it's mysterious and it's tricky to explain.
Who's this bizzare creature?
Lycopod's gametophyte is an independent plant creature.
Plants have a sporophyte and a gametophyte phase.
When looking at a lycopod like in these photos, you are looking at the sporophyte phase. ↓
The gametophyte, growing from a lycopod's spore underground, teams up with a specific fungi to get energy, and if all goes well, in secret chambers it produces eggs and — sperm that lead to a new lycopod (sporophyte)!
Development stages of running clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) gametophyte ↓ (Dr. H. Bruchmann illustration, 1989).
Botanists like Radvile study them because they help explain why lycopods still exist, how they managed to survive all extremes, and how we can better protect them.
It's a lycopod's gametophyte.
Lycopod gametophytes remain among the least studied botanical wonders in the world!
OK...! But who's gametophyte?
"Scientific knowledge about the abundance and diversity of underground gametophytes remains superficial.
For a researcher, working with such an organism is challenging; it's like being a detective who doesn't know where or how to search for suspects or what their motives are."
Dr. Radvile Rimgaile-Voicik
Encountering a lycopod is nothing short of a miracle —their full 'spore-to-spore' development cycle can take 20 to 30 years, depending on environmental conditions.
Explore timeline of lycopod research in Lithuania
Fundamental lycopod studies ARE FUNDAMENTAL
THREADS OF EVOLUTION
BIOTECH & MEDICINAL POTENTIAL
Research on lycopods enhances our understanding of plant evolution, including the development of vascular tissues, roots, and leaves, as well as genetic pathways. It helps reveal how water, nutrient, and reproduction management strategies have changed over time.
THE WEB OF LIFE
Studying them allows a better understanding of how they contribute to nutrient cycling, soil stabilization, and carbon sequestration in tropical and temperate forests. Also learn about lycopod conservation strategies, especially in biodiversity hotspots like tropical rainforests, as well as ancient climate condition shifts.
Lycopods contain unique secondary metabolites with anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, offering significant biotechnological and medicinal potential. Continued research could lead to new pharmaceutical discoveries and innovative applications based on ancient practices.
Without it, we risk losing vital insights into:
What else can these studies reveal?
MORE-THAN-BOTANICAL-WORLD?
“If we want to know something about environmental change, we need to know about the social worlds other species help to build.” — Anna Tsing
Discoveries in fundamental botanical science also open doors to observe, learn, and speculate on realms beyond the botanical world.
By paying attention to others, we inevitably gain a deeper understanding of what is like to be a human; what is life?
Disturbances
Underground
Behaviour
Habitat & habits
Place
Social life
History
Re-imagining repro
Attention to assemblages (grybo augalo rysiai), relations-to-others.
Vegetal language without words
“response-ability” (Haraway, 2016)
What/how lycopods are learning and what/how are we learning from them?
Ancient lycopod relatives made life as we know it possible. They collected tons of carbon and stored it as the coal we use today, contributing to global cooling millions of years ago.
They've changed a lot. Survived loads of extremes. And they continue to shape life in all sorts of different ways. This enormous change show that they do produce knowledge about their surrounding in their own ways.
Their life for humans is still largely terra incognita.
Knowledge creation is not human privilage. The way lycopods are is the way they understand the world.
HABITS
Behaviour
Social life
Reproduction
History
Approximately 350 million years ago, lycopod ancestors stood as colossal, 30 m high trees. When they died, they fell into swamps and got buried by mud and dirt. Over a long time, the heat and pressure from the Earth turned these old lycopods into coal we use today | Running clubmoss | Lycopodium clavatum. [Picture on the right source unknown].
Before they where predominant vegetation. Just way bigger.
The charcoal, the rapid burial, and the imperceptible rate of rot meant that many lycopod trunks were swiftly entombed entire in the forest floor and, 300 million years later, emerged as coal. This is the coal that gives its name to the entire age— the Carboniferous—even though coal forests persisted well into the Permian. Around 90 percent of all known coal deposits were laid down in just one heady 70- million-year interval, the age of the lycopod forests.
The way lycopods (ancient trees) lived had huge effects on the world. They grew quickly and kept using a lot of carbon, which came from carbon dioxide in the air. This big use of carbon, along with the breaking down of new mountains, helped cool the Earth and made the glaciers (big ice sheets) around the South Pole grow again.
Artist's impression of a Lepidodendron, 50 m tall tree | By Tim Bertelink
Memories of lycopods deep past
Biopolitical influence (how lycopods shaped landscapes, societies, and energy policies)
Resilience expertise from vegetal perspective
Queerness
What are the habits and habitats of lycopods? What are the relationships with other organisms?
SOCIAL LIFE OF LYCOPODS
Would you like to observe social life of lycopods and get to know more about lycopod research in Lithuania? We invite you to join us in a Lithuanian pine forest near Vilnius, where we'll walk and talk alongside lycopods, observing and discussing topics like these:
What's their way of communication?
Feel free to reach out for a walk&talk, workshop/presentation, transdisciplinary collaboration
or if you have any questions or suggestions!