Selaginella ciliaris(Retz.) Spring

fringed spikemoss

WFO wfo-0001119978 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. a Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-14 / obs. 197464799
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. b Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194984353
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. c Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191535480
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. d Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44596677
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. e Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197464783
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. f Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194984375
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Hugo Innes
fig. g Hugo Innes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191535497
Selaginella ciliaris, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. h Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44596681

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 29 botanical countries

Regions where Selaginella ciliaris is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Caroline Is., Marianas China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaIndiaJawaMalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia Andaman Is.Nicobar Is.Caroline Is.Marianas
Native distribution of Selaginella ciliaris, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Marianas MRN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 89 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.0 °C 15.3 °C 24.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.4 °C 29.4 °C 33.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,466 mm 2,506 mm 3,628 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 14 mm 147 mm 524 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 89 research-grade observations of Selaginella ciliaris that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 20 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Hypopterygiopsis ciliaris (Retz.) Li Bing Zhang & X.M.Zhou
  • Lycopodioides ciliaris (Retz.) Kuntze
  • Lycopodioides depressa (Sw.) Kuntze
  • Lycopodioides exigua (Spring) Kuntze
  • Lycopodioides pumilio (R.Br.) Kuntze
  • Lycopodium belangeri Bory
  • Lycopodium ciliare Retz.
  • Lycopodium depressum Sw.
  • Lycopodium pumilio R.Br.
  • Selaginella belangeri (Bory) Spring
  • Selaginella belangeri f. olivacea Alderw.
  • Selaginella congregata Alderw.
  • Selaginella depressa (Sw.) Spring
  • Selaginella exigua Spring
  • Selaginella papana Alderw.
  • Selaginella pumilio Spring
  • Selaginella ujensis Hieron.
  • Selaginella winkleri Hieron.
  • Stachygynandrum ciliare (Gmel.) P.Beauv.
  • Stachygynandrum depressum (Sw.) Carruth.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol SECI7. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.