This unusual plant can be seen in the Life Before Flowers House.
The Life Before Flowers House displays a range of early-evolution, non-flowering land plants. Among the plants grown here are spore-bearing lycophytes, or clubmosses, including the genus Huperzia, which contains over 300 species and, apart from North Africa, has a global distribution. H. squarrosa (or tassel fern) occurs in wet, tropical zones from the West Indian Ocean, through tropical and subtropical Asia to the Pacific. It is an epiphytic species (growing on the surface of another plant and deriving moisture and nutrients from the air), and grows in the rainforest canopy on moss-covered branches. The stems cascade down and display fertile terminal fronds, which bifurcate at the tips to produce a fork in the stem and two new stems. In cultivation H. squarrosa requires humidity, and although from the tropics it grows well in hot and cool temperatures.