Club Moss

History and Uses:
Club Moss may be found inhabiting moist places all over the world. A ground-creeping plant, it resembles the mosses but is considered to be evolutionarily more advanced because it is vascular; that is, it has specialized fluid-conducting tissues, and it reproduces by means of spores. The parts of this small vascular plant that are used medicinally are the minute spores which, as a yellow powder, are shaken out of the kidney-shaped capsules, or sporangia, growing on the inner side of the bracts that cover the fruit spikes. The spores are collected chiefly in Great Britain, Russia, Germany and Switzerland, the tops of the plants being cut as the spikes approach maturity. The spores of Club Moss are gathered and sold as "lycopodium powder" or "vegetable sulfur," a highly flammable yellow powder sometimes used in fireworks and also for pharmaceutical purposes (e.g., as an absorptive powder). The whole plant was used by ancient physicians as a stomachic and diuretic, mainly for kidney complaints. The spores do not appear to have been used alone until the seventeenth century, when they were employed as a diuretic in dropsy, diarrhea, dysentery and conditions resulting in the suppression of urine. Club Moss has been prescribed for irritability of the bladder and was official in the United States Pharmacopoeia. As a nervine, Club Moss has been used for spasms and hydrophobia and also as an aperient (mild laxative). It is also said to be helpful in cases of gout, scurvy and rheumatism; and for gout and rheumatism (even if the joints are deformed) or for chronic constipation and piles, Club Moss tea is often recommended. However, people who suffer from diarrhea should use the tea only with the greatest caution, as cramps in the intestines could develop. The herb is still used by herbalists today to treat minor skin wounds and is used as a topical application for wounds to stop bleeding. The spores are still medicinally employed by herbalists, both internally and externally, as a dusting powder for various skin diseases such as eczema and erysipelas or to prevent chafing in infants. Their chief pharmaceutical use is as a pill powder; they have such a strong water repellent power that if the hand is powdered with them, it can be dipped in water without becoming wet. Club Moss is said to be useful for all complaints of the urinary and reproductive organs, for inflammations and hardening of the testes, formation of gravel in the kidneys and renal colic. For inflammation of the liver, growth of the connective tissues of the liver, even if malignant, Club Moss is considered indispensable.