Lycopodium delavayi Christ & Herter, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 43(1, Beibl. 98): 41. 1909; Urostachys delavayi (Christ & Herter) Herter.

Plants terrestrial. Stem erect or ascending, 6-14 cm, ca. 2 mm in diam. at middle, together with leaves 0.7-1.2 cm wide, 2 or 3 times dichotomously branched, upper portion often with bulbils. Leaves dense, reflexed or attached at right angles with stem, lustrous, ovate-lanceolate, conspicuously contracted toward base, straight, 4-9 × 1.5-2 mm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midrib indistinct, base subcuneate, decurrent, sessile, margin straight and not crispate, upper portion inconspicuously toothed, apex acute. Sporophylls homomorphic with trophophylls; sporangia slightly visible or not visible from outside of sporophylls, yellowish, reniform.

Very little about Huperzia delavayi is known, due to the brief description in the protologue and the shortage of material. The herbarium material of this species is often misidentified as H. kunmingensis and H. herteriana. In fact, the leaves of H. delavayi are ovate-lanceolate, acute apically, raised abaxially, leathery, and lustrous, which obviously differs from those of H. kunmingensis. The lower portion of the leaves of H. delavayi is conspicuously contracted, which is different from H. herteriana.

● Wet soils under Rhododendron shrubs on slopes, among moss of shrubs, tree trunks, rocks, meadows; 2900-3800 m. ?W Sichuan (Kangding), S Xizang (Nyalam), W Yunnan (Gongshan, Lushui, Tengchong, Yangbi).