Selaginella hansenii
Selaginella leucobryoides
Hansen's spike-moss
Mojave spike-moss
not readily fragmenting, prostrate, upperside and underside structurally different, irregularly forked, branches determinate, tips upturned.
decumbent to short-creeping, dry stems readily fragmenting; irregularly forked, without budlike arrested branches, tips straight;
main stem upperside and underside structurally slightly different, inconspicuously indeterminate, lateral branches radially symmetric, determinate, strongly ascending, 1-forked.
with underside leaves slightly longer and narrower than upperside leaves, otherwise monomorphic, not clearly ranked, tightly appressed, ascending, green or green with red spots, or reddish, linear-lanceolate (underside) to linear-triangular (upperside), (2–)3–4.5 × 0.5–0.6 mm;
abaxial ridges present;
base abruptly adnate, pubescent (sometimes glabrous);
margins ciliate, cilia white to white opaque, strongly appressed and ascending, 0.03–0.1 mm;
apex with bristle white to white-opaque, 0.5–1.4 mm (those on underside leaves sometimes 1/4–1/2 longer than those on upperside leaves).
monomorphic, ± in alternate pseudowhorls of 4, tightly appressed, ascending, green, linear-oblong to linear-lanceolate, sometimes falcate on lateral rows (on main stem), 2–4.5 × 0.5–0.65 mm (usually smaller on young ascending branches);
abaxial ridges present;
base cuneate and decurrent (rounded and adnate on young branches), glabrous;
margins short-ciliate, cilia transparent, scattered, spreading at base to ascending and dentiform toward apex, 0.07–0.15 mm;
apex slightly attenuate and bristled or obtuse and abruptly bristled;
bristle whitish or transparent, puberulent, 0.2–0.6 mm.
solitary, 5–7 mm;
sporophylls ovate-deltate to ovate-triangular, abaxial ridges not prominent, base glabrous, margins short-ciliate, apex bristled.
solitary, 0.4–1.5 cm;
sporophylls deltate-ovate or lanceolate, abaxial ridges moderately defined, base glabrous, margins short-ciliate to denticulate, apex acuminate with very short bristle.
borne on upperside of stems, throughout stem length, 0.25–0.45 mm diam.
borne on upperside of stems, throughout stem length, 0.2–0.35 mm diam.
Selaginella hansenii
Selaginella leucobryoides
Leaf dimorphism in Selaginella hansenii is only slightly and inconsistently expressed; the upperside leaves tend to be more lanceolate, short, and slightly thick, whereas the underside leaves tend to be more linear, longer, and thinner, but in some specimens the leaves are monomorphic. Red leaves are rare within Selaginella subg. Tetragonostachys, otherwise found in the flora only occasionally in S. rupestris. Such leaves are more common in S. steyermarkii Alston from southern Mexico and Guatemala and S. sartorii Hieronymus from Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Selaginella leucobryoides has very tightly intertwined stems that readily fragment, a characteristic shared with S. utahensis and S. asprella. Selaginella leucobryoides is very closely related to, and difficult to separate from, S. utahensis (see discussion).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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