Selaginella monospora

Selaginella monospora Spring, Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci. Belgique 24: 135 1850. (syn: Lycopodioides gorvalensis (Spring) O. Kuntze; Lycopodium monosporum (Spring) Hook.; Selaginella effusa var. medogensis (Ching & S. K. Wu) W. M. Chu; Selaginella gorvalensis Spring; Selaginella medogensis Ching & S. K. Wu; Selaginella microclada Bak.; Selaginella monospora var. ciliolata W. M. Chu; Selaginella plumosa var. monospora (Spring) Bak.);
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Nepal to S. China and Indo-China: Assam, Cambodia, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Hainan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam as per POWO;
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Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar [Burma], Thailand, India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam State, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, West Bengal), Bhutan, Nepal, China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan), Tibet as per Catalogue of Life;
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Terrestrial herbs with decumbent stem, 30-60 cm long, 1-2 mm thick, stout, cylindrical, dark green, turning brown on dry. Branches many, pinnate. Rhizophores throughout, 6-10 cm long, slender, cylindrical. Leaves heteromorphic throughout, membranous, distant along main stem, compact along branches; median leaves imbricate, 2.6 x 1.1 mm, ovate, aristate, arista 1.1 mm long, base sub-cordate, margin denticulate; lateral leaves 3.7 x 1.25 mm, oblong-lanceolate, acute or subacute, oblique, margin denticulate; axillary leaves 3.3 x 1.25 mm, oblong-lanceolate, slightly oblique, apex acute or subacute, margin entire. Strobili 4.9 x 3.3 mm, termninal, sessile, solitary; sporophylls dimorphic, membranous, spiral, 3.3 x 0.9 mm; larger sporophylls obolong-lanceolate, acute, smaller sporophylls ovate, aristate, arista 1.9 mm long, margin denticulate. Microspores 18 um in diameter, ornge-red, trilete, papillate. Megaspores 290 um in diameter, pale yellow, globose, tetrahedral, verrucoid.
in moist deciduous, semievergreen and evergreen forests at high altitudes
(Attributions- K. P. Rajesh from India Biodiversity Portal)
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SK1174 05 JUNE 2018 : 9 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (3) – around 800 kb each.

Location : Lava, Kalimpong, India
Date : 11 May 2018
Elevation :  7000 ft.
Habit : Wild

Any fern? 


 

Moss family ??

this is Selaginella sp. but could not close in into the specific ID.


Well the Selaginella is young plants of the well known S. monospora that grows in huge quantity around Darjeeling, E. Nepal etc., but as there is no close-up of fertile strobili, the characteristic diagnostic features are not shown.  All Selaginella requires to show the strobili in detail – to make a more useful photo.
The uncurling frond also shows no diagnostic features, but would presumably be Dennstaedtia zeylanica (syn. D. scabra), if a mature frond were shown.