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Selaginella is one of those fascinating plants that at first glance looks like it would be more comfortable living on a coral reef or in an aquarium amongst a school of tropical fish. The gorgeously vivid plant falls between a couple of different categories and almost forms a plant group of its own not quite fitting in anywhere else.
Selaginella is the only genus that makes up its family group Selaginellaceas, consisting of around 750 different species these tropical looking fern/moss-like plants have delicately scaled leaves with spores on their underside. This plant is found in almost all tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world as well as a few cold-tolerant species being found in arctic-alpine zones on both sides of the globe.
The perennial plant is also known as spike moss, lesser club moss, or trailing moss and is a type of vascular plant, meaning a plant that has a specialised system for carrying and transporting fluids around its vascular system. This different adaption is where it puts itself in a grey area between moss and fern, with similar traits to both it has formed a category of being somewhere in the middle. Selaginella is mostly a ground-covering plant with the ability to creep, trail or climb over its natural surroundings.
These plants at their core are humidity lovers and often struggle in dry environments. But some species of this plant have formed incredible adaptations to deal with areas of low humidity. Known as the resurrection plant, they have found their way to desserts where moisture is almost non-existent. To survive, when all signs of moisture have vanished, they curl up into a tight, dead-looking, brown ball and become dormant. Then once the first signs of moisture re-appear, they unfurl, turn green and pick back up where they left off.
