Distribution
Finland, Georgia, Russian Federation, Ukraine

Native to: Alaska, Altay, Amur, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Borneo, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, British Columbia, Bulgaria, Burundi, Buryatiya, California, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central European Rus, Comoros, Connecticut, Czechoslovakia, Delaware, Denmark, District of Columbia, Dominican Republic, East European Russia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Free State, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Gulf of Guinea Is., Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Inner Mongolia, Iowa, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Kentucky, Kenya, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Maine, Malawi, Malaya, Maluku, Manchuria, Manitoba, Maryland, Masachusettes, Mauritius, Michigan, Minnesota, Mongolia, Montana, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Brunswick, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, North European Russi, Northern Provinces, Northwest European R, Norway, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Primorye, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Romania, Rwanda, Réunion, Sakhalin, Saskatchewan, Solomon Is., South Carolina, Spain, Sudan, Sulawesi, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tennessee, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vermont, Vietnam, Virginia, Washington, West Siberia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Yakutskiya, Yugoslavia, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe.

Horizontal stems on substrate surface. Upright shoots clustered, 0.6-1.2 cm diam., dominant main shoot with 3-6 branches mostly in lower 1/2. Lateral branchlets few and like upright shoots; annual bud constrictions abrupt, branchlets mostly spreading. Leaves spreading, often somewhat ascending in distal 1/3 of branches, medium green, linear, 4-6 × 0.4-0.8 mm; margins entire; apex with narrow hair tip 2.5-4 mm. Peduncles 3.5-12.5 cm, with remote pseudowhorls of appressed leaves, loosely branched into 2-5 alternate stalks, 0.5-0.8 cm. Strobili 2-5 on alternate stalks (if double, usually with stalks 5-8 mm), 15-25 × 3-6 mm. Sporophylls 1.5-2.5 mm, apex abruptly reduced to hair tip. 2n = 68.
Habitat: Fields and woods.
Elevation: 100-1800 m.
(Flora of North America)