Selaginella Appreciation

I have totally fallen in love with this genus! Me-a long-time cacti keeper-becoming addicted to keeping these rather high-maintainance moisture-loving primitive plants-go figure. Still, though, what's not to love?

Selaginella emmeliana


Selaginella apoda, SC native species, wild-collected from ditchbank-funny how I'd seen these all my life and never paid much attention to it. I just dismissed them as "moss", so I was thrilled to come across this clump.


Selaginella erythropus: found a LOT of these recently at Lowe's, mislabeled as "Mahogany Ferns", many of them near-dead from lack of water. This is a rather delicate species with sharply-contrasting colors, dark green to blue-green on top and blood-red underneath.




Selaginella krausianna


Selaginella pallucens, showing new growth


Selaginella uncinata, aka "Peacock Moss", or "Rainbow Moss"; young plants exhibit amazing iridescence, appearing to change color from different shades of blue, green and purple, depending on the light and angle, and turn pink, red and purple when exposed over time to bright sunlight. Tends to be trailing and can become very long, over six or seven feet.
Under room fluorescent lighting:



Under LED lighting:


Mature plant, purchased mislabeled as S. martinsii:



Unknown species, no label-possibly a real S. martinsii, a very stiff and upright species.


Window box with S. uncinata, S. "mystery plant" & S. erythropus


400 million years and STILL lookin' good!

pitbulllady

I'm a big fan too, they're stunning plants.
erythropus and uncinata are by far my favorite but I also have martensii, a specie from peru, plana and 2 kinds of kraussiana (a lime green form and a dark green form)

*Self_DeFenCe* said:

I'm a big fan too, they're stunning plants.
erythropus and uncinata are by far my favorite but I also have martensii, a specie from peru, plana and 2 kinds of kraussiana (a lime green form and a dark green form)

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It's funny how I've seen Selaginella apoda and Selaginella acanthanota my whole life, and never paid much attention to them until recently. I've found some S. apoda, including the one in my photo, and there's another even-larger clump almost straight across the highway in front of our house, but it's on a vertical ditchbank surrounded by vicious bull briars and wild blackberry vines, so I can't get to it. I have not, however, been able to locate any S. acanthanota recently; guess I'm gonna have to find time to go looking in one of our nearby sandhill habitats, since it likes a dryer, sandier environment, rather "marginal" land to say the least, than most of this genus. I picked up two little possible S. willdenowii today, with a bit of iridescence to them, but I'm not positive on that ID, along with a very dark green(doesn't look like S. kraussiana), upright specie I'm not familiar with, either.
And, if anyone claims that all of this genus are small, delicate plants, they should have helped me re-pot that big S. uncinata yesterday! That thing is a BEAST! I moved it into a 12-inch hanging pot, the biggest available, and it still really needs more room. Some of the fronds measured over 8 feet in length, and the whole thing probably weighs a good 30 pounds!

pitbulllady

You're lucky to observe Selaginella in nature, we don't have any in Quebec. I've read/heard S.willdenowii is growing upright and it gets big and bushy. I never had any success growing Selaginella as an house plant, I have to keep them in a vivarium otherwise they dry out.

*Self_DeFenCe* said:

You're lucky to observe Selaginella in nature, we don't have any in Quebec. I've read/heard S.willdenowii is growing upright and it gets big and bushy. I never had any success growing Selaginella as an house plant, I have to keep them in a vivarium otherwise they dry out.

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Ah, the benefits of living in the southeastern US-HUMIDITY! Of course, I mist my Selaginellas at least twice daily, along with my ferns and Nepenthes, and that certainly doesn't hurt.

pitbulllady

Ever since killing two Selaginella krausianna Ive given up. I was giving them once a day mistings with no effect. Now Im thinking I should have built a biger humidity tray and placed them next to my Tillandsia.

I have what I think is S. krausianna, and I had a question about it.

I noticed that some of the leaves turn kind of red, but that only seems to happen when the plant is too dry. I wound up putting it into an empty 5-gallon desktop fishtank with some water in the bottom and a compact flourescent, and it just kind of burst back to life and all the new leaves/stems were a verdant green.

Is the reddened leaf hue a sign of maturity, or a sign of dehydration?

Also, I think this thread should be renamed to the "club-moss-club".

LordRaiden said:

I have what I think is S. krausianna, and I had a question about it.

I noticed that some of the leaves turn kind of red, but that only seems to happen when the plant is too dry. I wound up putting it into an empty 5-gallon desktop fishtank with some water in the bottom and a compact flourescent, and it just kind of burst back to life and all the new leaves/stems were a verdant green.

Is the reddened leaf hue a sign of maturity, or a sign of dehydration?

Also, I think this thread should be renamed to the "club-moss-club".

Click to expand...

I noticed that a lot of Selaginellas turn colors when exposed to bright light, likeS. uncinata. I haven't let any of mine dry out, so I don't know if that can lead to reddish coloration or not. I'd think it would be more likely to just wilt.

pitbulllady