Family: Selaginellaceae
Plant: A small branching plant with stems up to 30cm long.
Note: This primitive plant is neither a fern nor a flowering plant as it has leaves but lacks flowers, reproduces sexually by spores and has an Underground or surface-creeping Rhizome rather than a root system.
Leaves: Scale-like bright green, lanceolate to ovate, pointed, keeled, 2-3mm long and clustered up stem in 4 rows.
Sporophyll: Appearing like tiny white balls in the upper leaf axils.
Rhizome: Long, creeping, wiry, much-branched, deeply-buried or scrambling over surface.
Habitat: Common in wet, sandy locations near swamps and ponds in heathland.
Features: Bright green stiff leaves arranged in 4 rows. Underground rhizome system. Pinnate branching stems.
Name:
Selaginella From Latin name for the plant Selago.
ulignosa From Latin uliginosus = damp, marshy, wet (referring to its habitat).
Because of its odd nature, this primitive plant will need two search paths, namely via both the Flowering Plant and the Fern routes. Thus:
Fern Route
|
Type |
Fern |
|
|
Trunk |
No trunk |
|
|
Fronds |
Form |
Compound |
|
|
Length (Total) |
Short |
|
|
Other Features |
- |
|
Sori |
Arrangement |
In rows |
|
Rhizome |
Type |
Underground, Creeping |
|
|
Other Features |
- |
|
Habitat |
Heathland, Fresh Water Habitats |
|
Flowering Plant Route
|
Type |
Shrub, Herb, Scrambler |
|
|
Flowers |
Form |
- |
|
|
Colour(s) |
- |
|
|
Petal/Sepal No. |
- |
|
|
Flowering Month |
- |
|
Fruit |
Type |
- |
|
|
Colour |
- |
|
|
Other Features |
- |
|
Leaves |
Arrangement |
Clustered, Opposite |
|
|
Type |
Simple |
|
|
Shape |
Oval |
|
|
Length |
Tiny |
|
|
Margins |
Entire |
|
|
Attachment |
Unstalked |
|
|
Other Features |
- |
|
Bark |
- |
|
|
Habitat |
Heathland, Fresh Water Habitat |
|