An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions/Selaginellaceae
Family 10.
Selaginellàceae
Underw.
Native Ferns 103.
1881.
Selaginella Family.
Terrestrial, annual or perennial, moss-like plants with branching stems and scale-like leaves, which are many-ranked and uniform, or 4-ranked and of two types spreading in two planes. Sporanges 1-celled, solitary in the axils of leaves which are so arranged as to form more or less quadrangular spikes, some containing 4 megaspores (megasporanges), others containing numerous microspores (microsporanges), which develop into small prothallia, those from the megaspores bearing archegones, those from the microspores antherids.
The family consists of the following genus:
1.0[edit]
1. Selaginélla Beauv. Prodr. Aetheog. 101. 1805.
Characters of family. [Name diminutive of Selago, an ancient name of some Lycopodium.]
About 340 species, widely distributed, most abundant in the tropics. Besides the following some five others occur in western North America. Type species: Lycopodium selaginoides L.
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| • | Stem-leaves all alike, many-ranked. | |||||||||||
| • | Stems compact with rigid leaves; spikes quadrangular. | 1. | S. rupestris. | |||||||||
| • | Stems slender; leaves lax, spreading; spikes enlarged, scarcely quadrangular. | 2. | S. selaginoides. | |||||||||
| • | Stem-leaves of 2 kinds, 4-ranked, spreading in 2 planes. | 3. | S. apus. | |||||||||
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1.1[edit]
| 1. Selaginella rupéstris (L.) Spring. Rock Selaginella. Festoon-pine. Fig. 115. |
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Lycopodium rupestre L. Sp. Pl. 1101. 1753. | |
Stems densely tufted, with occasional sterile runners and sub-pinnate branches, 1'−3' high commonly curved when dry. Leaves rigid, appressed-imbricated, 1" or less long, linear or linear-lanceolate, convex on the back, more or less ciliate, many-ranked, tipped with a distinct transparent awn; spikes sessile at the ends of the stem or branches, strongly quadrangular, 6"−12" long, about 1" thick; bracts ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, broader than the leaves of the stem; megasporanges and microsporanges borne in the same spikes, the former more abundant. | |
On dry rocks, New England and Ontario to Georgia and the middle West. Ascends to at least 2000 ft. in Virginia. Dwarf club-moss. Christmas-evergreen. Resurrection-plant. Aug.−Oct. |
1.2[edit]
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2. Selaginella selaginoìdes (L.) Link. Low Selaginella. Fig. 116. |
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Lycopodium selaginoides L. Sp. Pl. 1101. 1753. | |
Sterile branches prostrate-creeping, slender, ½'-2' long, the fertile erect or ascending, thicker, 1'-3' high, simple; leaves lanceolate, acute, lax and spreading, sparsely spinuloseciliate, 1"-2" long; spikes solitary at the ends of the fertile branches, enlarged, oblong-linear, subacute, 1' or less long, 2"-2½" thick ; bracts of the spike lax, ascending, lanceolate or ovatelanceolate, strongly ciliate. | |
On wet rocks, Labrador to Alaska, south to New Hampshire, Michigan and Colorado. Also in northern Europe, Greenland and Asia. Mountain-moss. Prickly club-moss. Summer. |
1.3[edit]
| 3. Selaginella àpus (L.) Spring. Creeping Selaginella. Fig. 117. |
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Lycopodium apodum L. Sp. Pl. 1105. 1753. | |
Annual, light green, stems prostrate-creeping, 1'-4' long, much branched, flaccid, angled on the face. Leaves minute, membranous, of 2 kinds, 4-ranked, spreading in 2 planes; upper leaves of the lower plane spreading, the lower reflexed, ovate, acute, serrulate, not distinctly ciliate; leaves of the upper plane ovate, short-cuspidate; spikes 3"-8" long, obscurely quadrangular; bracts ovate, acute, sometimes serrulate, acutely keeled in the upper half; megasporanges more abundant toward the base of the spike. | |
In moist shaded places, often among grass, Maine and Ontario to the Northwest Territory, south to Florida, Louisiana and Texas. Ascends to 2200 ft. in Virginia. July-Sept. |