Selaginella plumosa (L.) C.Presl

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Selaginellaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Selaginella plumosa (L.) C.Presl

  • Description

    Species Description - Main stems trailing, up to 75 cm long, 1-1.7 mm thick, quadrangular, straw-colored, bearing stout rhizophores at the nodes throughout. Branches altemate, distant, frondose, spreading or ascending, lacking rhizophores, mostly 10-25 cm long, with relatively few ultimate divisions. Lateral leaves of main stem and principal branches distant, rigid, deltate-ovate to ovateoblong, 3-4 mm long, 1.7-2.2 mm broad. abmptly acute and short-cuspidate at apex, at the base narrowly cordate-auriculate and coarsely ciliate, the margins obliquely denticulate and revolute toward the apex. Lateral leaves of ultimate divisions mostly oblong; leaf-tissue light or yellowish-green, thick, opaque. Median leaves narrowly oblong-ovate, rigidly long-acuminate, mostly 1-2 mm long, peltately attached, lightly carinate, and rigidly ciliolate. Strobiles few, 3- 12 mm long; sporophylls ovate, 1.5-2 mm long, long-acuminate, sharply carinate, and with sclerotic, ciliolate-denticulate margins.

  • Discussion

    Basionym. Lycopodium plumosum Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 2: 1105. 1753, in part.

    Lectotype. Plumier, Descr. pl. Amer., t. 24, fig. B (authentic specimen OX).

    Syn. Lycopodium stoloniferum Swartz, Prodr. 138. 1788. (Type. Swartz, from Hispaniola, S, isotype BM.)

    Selaginella stolonifera (Swartz) Spring, Flora 21: 193. 1838.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Greater Antilles and St.

    United States Virgin Islands South America|