Selaginella eremophila

DESERT SPIKE-MOSS

Common Name: SPIKE-MOSS FAMILY
Stem: wiry, generally rooting adventitiously [or not] from downward-growing leafless shoot-like structures (rhizophores), branching variable, generally not fragile when dry. Leaf: many, simple, overlapped, appressed, small, +- scale-like, 1-veined, generally grooved abaxially [or not] nearly to tip, generally +- of 2 kinds ("under-leaves" under main stem, "over-leaves" over it). Cone: paired or 1, terminal, generally 4-sided, fertile leaves not like sterile, generally strongly keeled. Sporangia: 1 per leaf axil, 2 kinds, male (generally more distal in cones, spores many, small), female (spores (1)4, large, generally orange-yellow).
Genera In Family: 1 genus, +- 700 species: worldwide, generally tropics, warm temperate. Note: Despite recent progress in understanding relationships (Zhou et al. 2016 Cladistics 32:360--389; Weststrand & Korall 2016 Amer J Bot 103:2136--2159), future taxonomic changes in the family are likely.
eFlora Treatment Author: Paul Wilson & Thomas J. Rosatti
Scientific Editor: Alan R. Smith, Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: SPIKE-MOSS

Etymology: (Latin: small Selago, ancient name for some Lycopodium) Note: Some cultivated as groundcover, curiosity: Selaginella kraussiana; Selaginella lepidophylla (Hook. & Grev.) Spring, resurrection plant. Hand lens, generally at +- 20×, required for leaves (shape, margin, awn at tip), cones.
Unabridged Note: All native California taxa are in the Rupestrae clade (Weststrand & Korall 2016 Amer J Bot 103:2160--2169), also treated as section Homoeophyllae (Zhou et al. 2015 Taxon 64:1117--1140) or, formerly, the nomenclaturally ambiguous subgenus Tetragonostachys (Jermy 1986 Fern Gazette 13:117--118). Selaginella shared a common ancestor with Isoetes, +- 380 million years ago (Larsén & Rydin 2016 Int J Pl Sci 177:157--174).