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Selaginellaceae

Selaginellaceae
Selaginellaceae image
  • FNA
  • VPAP
  • Resources
Spike-moss family
Iván A. Valdespino in Flora of North America (vol. 2)
Plants herbaceous, annual or perennial, sometimes remaining green over winter. Stems leafy, branching dichotomously, regularly or irregularly forked or branched, protostelic (sometimes with many protosteles or meristeles), siphonostelic, or actino-plectostelic. Rhizophores (modified leafless shoots producing roots) present or absent, geotropic, borne on stems at branch forks, throughout, or confined to base of stems. Leaves on 1 plant dimorphic or monomorphic, small, with adaxial ligule near base, single-veined [rarely veins forked]. Strobili (clusters of overlapping sporophylls) sometimes ill-defined, terminal [lateral], cylindric, quadrangular, or flattened. Sporophylls (fertile leaves) monomorphic or adjacently different, slightly or highly differentiated from vegetative (sterile) leaves. Sporangia short-stalked, solitary in axil of sporophylls, opening by distal slits. Spores of 2 types (plants heterosporous), megaspores (1--2--)4, large, microspores numerous (hundreds), minute.

Selaginellaceae traditionally include only one genus of living plants, Selaginella (A. C. Jermy 1990b; R. M. Tryon and A. F. Tryon 1982). Some authors (O. Kuntze 1891--1898, vol. 2, pp. 824--827; W. Rothmaler 1944), however, have segregated other genera based on generic concepts established by A. Palisot de Beauvois (1805, pp. 95--114), who recognized four genera. A. F. Spring (1850) combined the four genera into the broadly defined genus Selaginella . Spring's generic delimitation has resulted in misinterpretations that created many nomenclatural problems and partly led to the continued recognition of only one genus. Nevertheless, species in Selaginella fall into at least three well-defined groups, all present in North America, that may be recognized as genera based on anatomy, embryology, morphology and arrangement of the leaves and sporophylls, and morphology and symmetry of the strobilus. North American Selaginellaceae, which represent only a small portion of the family, are treated here in Selaginella , pending a full revision of the family worldwide.

Species in the fossil genus Selaginellites Zeller, which dates to the Carboniferous period, presumably are congeneric with Selaginella . Among the fern allies, Selaginellaceae are related only distantly to the other lycopod families, Lycopodiaceae and Isoëtaceae (R. M. Tryon and A. F. Tryon 1982).

CANOTIA 5(1)
PLANT: Perennial herbs in ours with often dichotomously branched stems. ROOTS: adventitious, short, produced from near the tips of modified leafless root-like stems (rhizophores), branched or more commonly unbranched. LEAVES: variously arranged, scale-like, with the venation restricted to a midvein. SPORANGIA: of two types, kidney-shaped to depressed-ovoid, positioned on the adaxial base of leaf-like sporophylls, arranged in strobili terminal on the branches. MEGASPORANGIA: with usually 4 megaspores, these relatively large, trilete, tetrahedral-globose. MICROSPORANGIA: with numerous microspores, these minute, trilete, tetrahedralglobose. GAMETOPHYTES: reduced, developing mostly inside the spores, the archegonia and antheridia protruding from the spore wall. NOTES: 1 genus, 700-750 spp., nearly worldwide. REFERENCES: Yatskievych, G. and M. D. Windham. 2009. Vascular Plants of Arizona: Selaginellaceae. CANOTIA 5 (1): 39-48.
Species within checklist: Sonoran Desert Field Botany (ASU) Spring 2023 || << 1 - 50 taxa >>
Bryodesma acanthonota
Media resource of Bryodesma acanthonota
Bryodesma corallinum
Media resource of Bryodesma corallinum
Didiclis uncinata
Media resource of Didiclis uncinata
Gymnogynum kraussianum
Media resource of Gymnogynum kraussianum
Gymnogynum stellatum
Media resource of Gymnogynum stellatum
Hypopterygiopsis whitmeei
Media
not available
Lycopodioides denticulata
Media
not available
Selaginella acutifolia
Media resource of Selaginella acutifolia
Selaginella adunca
Media
not available
Selaginella aenea
Media resource of Selaginella aenea
Selaginella aitchisonii
Media
not available
Selaginella albomarginata
Media resource of Selaginella albomarginata
Selaginella albonitens
Media resource of Selaginella albonitens
Selaginella alligans
Media resource of Selaginella alligans
Selaginella alopecuroides
Media resource of Selaginella alopecuroides
Selaginella alutacea
Media resource of Selaginella alutacea
Selaginella amazonica
Media resource of Selaginella amazonica
Selaginella amblyphylla
Media resource of Selaginella amblyphylla
Selaginella anaclasta
Media resource of Selaginella anaclasta
Selaginella anceps
Media resource of Selaginella anceps
Selaginella apoda
Media resource of Selaginella apoda
Selaginella apoensis
Media
not available
Selaginella applanata
Media resource of Selaginella applanata
Selaginella apus
Media resource of Selaginella apus
Selaginella arbuscula
Media resource of Selaginella arbuscula
Selaginella arbusculoides
Media resource of Selaginella arbusculoides
Selaginella arenaria
Media resource of Selaginella arenaria
Selaginella arenicola
Media resource of Selaginella arenicola
Selaginella argentea
Media resource of Selaginella argentea
Selaginella aristata
Media resource of Selaginella aristata
Selaginella arizonica
Media resource of Selaginella arizonica
Selaginella armata
Media resource of Selaginella armata
Selaginella arsenei
Media resource of Selaginella arsenei
Selaginella arsiclada
Media resource of Selaginella arsiclada
Selaginella arthritica
Media resource of Selaginella arthritica
Selaginella articulata
Media resource of Selaginella articulata
Selaginella asperula
Media resource of Selaginella asperula
Selaginella asplundii
Media resource of Selaginella asplundii
Selaginella asprella
Media resource of Selaginella asprella
Selaginella atirrensis
Media resource of Selaginella atirrensis
Selaginella auquieri
Media
not available
Selaginella auriculata
Media resource of Selaginella auriculata
Selaginella australiensis
Media resource of Selaginella australiensis
Selaginella balansae
Media
not available
Selaginella banksii
Media resource of Selaginella banksii
Selaginella barnebyana
Media resource of Selaginella barnebyana
Selaginella basipilosa
Media resource of Selaginella basipilosa
Selaginella bemarahensis
Media resource of Selaginella bemarahensis
Selaginella bernoullii
Media
not available
Selaginella biformis
Media resource of Selaginella biformis
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