Found in 45+ years worth of zone 5 natural woodland. Not old-growth forest, but there are a lot of towering trees in there.

I haven't ever seen anything like this in the area before and I wouldn't have a clue as to where to look for the answer; other than here of course!;-)

The specimen is about 3" high, by 2 and 1/2" wide. Pretty small. It's growing in fertile silty-clay soil with plentiful humus.

Any ideas?

some kind of creeping cedar...no idea what the Latin name is..

Maybe:
Lycopodium digitatum

My first thought was maybe Lycopodium dendroideum:

http://www.google.com/search?q...

but now I'm thinking of Club Moss: http://www.illinoiswildflowers...

LOL, it's not the club moss and it looks like Lee Anne got the right Lycopodium! http://www.google.com/search?q...

Okay. Lycopodium digitatum it is. However, I'm still intrigued by the Clubmoss. I was all set to look at it again tomorrow to see if it had the horizontal runners....

Thanks, Lee Anne and Lin!

Thanks goes to Lee Anne, she's the one who nailed it! I hope you add any info and photo's you have to the database!

Yep! I sure will!

I have a terrible connection right now, so I'll restore that photo, re-size it, and get it in the DB after the lines are clear.

Thanks, again!