Selaginella semicordata

Selaginella semicordata (Wall. ex Hook. & Grev.) Spring, in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 1(2): 122 (1840) (syn: Lycopodium semicordatum Wall. ex Hook. & Grev. ; Lycopodioides semicordata (Wall. ex Hook. & Grev.) Kuntze ; Selaginella burghallii R.Sim ; Selaginella mettenii A.Braun);

Nepal to NE. India and Sumatera: Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Sumatera as per POWO;

Selaginella sp. from Kamrup district, Assam:

Attached images are Selaginella sp. Please ID for it

Date : 21.12.2012

Location: Rani forest, District Kamrup (Assam)

Habitat: Grows wild on damp place

Habit : Herb

Family : Selaginellaceae
Genus & Species : Selaginella sp.

Not sure, but could it be Selaginella strobilus. Sending some of my photographs.

To me it seems to be Selaginella canaliculata.

Oh dear, too many wild guesses again! But these photos are quite clear and it is a species that is not hard to recognise. Neither S. strobilus, nor S. canaliculata occur in India! So I don’t know why they are being mentioned – one can see that from Alston’s paper on Indian Selaginella and the late Dixit’s book on Indian Selaginella.
It is none other than S. semicordata, which occurs commonly at low altitude in N.E. India (just goes as far west as SE Nepal, where I discovered it some years ago).
It tends to like wet, marshy places, or grassy places near streams, where it creeps along between the grasses and the erect side-branches bear fertile sporangiophores which have isomorphic sporophylls.

References:

POWO Collections Search Center Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World

Updated on December 24, 2024

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