Clubmoss is also commonly known as stag horn, witch meal, and vegetable sulfur. Its genus name Lycopodium is derived from the Greek words lycos meaning wolf and podus for foot, its leaf being said to resemble a wolf's paw.

The yellowish, powdery spores of clubmosses contain flammable pollen that was used as flash powder for the first photographic cameras and by theater pyrotechnists. Clubmosses resemble miniature evergreen trees, having upright stems and horizontal branches that contain spore-bearing cones. For hundreds of millions of years, clubmosses survived many climatic and environmental changes. More closely related to ferns than mosses, these plants grew to gigantic proportions and dominated the earth during the Paleozoic era. The decayed matter of these ancient plants comprises a major portion of coal beds worldwide. Although found in temperate areas, these evergreens continue to chiefly thrive in tropical and subtropical regions.

Commercially gathered in the summer months in Germany, Russia, and Switzerland, the fine, yellowish powder spores are retrieved by shaking the renal-shaped capsules borne on the small evergreens. Clubmoss spores are considered to have medicinal properties and for years were used in dusting powders formulated to treat conditions such as eczema, intertrigo, herpes, and ulcers. In times past, pharmacist would place the water repellent powdered spores into pillboxes to keep the contents from adhering to each other.