Japan Flora: Delicate herb; stems and branches short, 2.5-35 mm. wide, appressed to the ground, forming a loose mat; leaves of lower plane spreading to slighdy deflexed, oblong to ovate-oblong, 1.2-1.7 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, obtuse to subacute, loosely ciliolate, pale green, slightly dilated on upper margin at base, those of upper plane narrowly ovate, obtuse to sub- acute, about 1 mm. long, ascending; fertile branches erect, simple or once forked, scapiform, 4-8 cm. long, the leaves all alike, ovate, 1.2-1.5 mm. long, acute, ciliolate, pale yellow-green, ascending, rather loosely disposed; spikes slender, solitary or in pairs, 1-3 cm. long, the bracts membranous, similar to the leaves of the scape, obliquely spreading. July-Aug. Alpine slopes;

Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu; rare. s. Kuriles, Korea, China, Siberia to Asia Minor, Europe.

Russia Flora: Plant up to 8 cm tall, very delicate, pressed to the substrate, with short branches up to 3.5 mm wide, forming loose mats. Phyllodia heterogeneous: upper ones — slightly turned back, broadly oval, 1.7 mm long, 1 mm wide, blunted, with sparse small cilia, slightly widened along the lower edge at the base; lower ones — ascending, narrowly oval, smaller. Spore-bearing branches ascending, once forked, arrow-shaped, 4-8 cm long, with more loosely arranged light yellow-green phyllodia 1.2-1.5 mm long, 1 mm wide. Strobiloids thin, solitary or paired, up to 3.5 cm long, with more or less homogeneous membranous, obliquely spreading sporophylloids. Microspore spermoderm with a finely tuberculate contour.

Lower Zeya, Bureya, Ussuri, Southern Kuril Islands — Moist rocks and mossy stony screes in lowlands and mountains. VII-VIII. — General distribution: European part (Carpathians), Caucasus, Eastern Siberia; Central Europe, Asia Minor, Japan-China.