Selaginella plana(Desv. ex Poir.) Hieron.

Asian spikemoss

WFO wfo-0001116253 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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 plana, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. a Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2018-03-11 / obs. 14451711
Selaginella plana, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. b Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 183529060
Selaginella plana, photographed by Quinn Campbell
fig. c Quinn Campbell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 60141558
Selaginella plana, photographed by Al Kordesch
fig. d Al Kordesch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 56559495
Selaginella plana, photographed by Al Kordesch
fig. e Al Kordesch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 56559584
Selaginella plana, photographed by Al Kordesch
fig. f Al Kordesch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 56559580
Selaginella plana, photographed by Al Kordesch
fig. g Al Kordesch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 56559488
Selaginella plana, photographed by Ana Ka'ahanui
fig. h Ana Ka'ahanui, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139163491

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 9 botanical countries

Regions where Selaginella plana is native: Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Vanuatu JawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuNew GuineaSolomon Is.SulawesiSumatera Vanuatu
Native distribution of Selaginella plana, 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
Jawa JAW ASIA-TROPICAL
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Vanuatu VAN PACIFIC

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.

Also published as 15 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.

  • Didiclis plana (Desv.) Li Bing Zhang & X.M.Zhou
  • Lycopodium canaliculatum var. pallidius Hook. & Arn.
  • Lycopodium durvillei Bory
  • Lycopodium nemorum Desv.
  • Lycopodium pellucidum Desv.
  • Lycopodium planum Desv. ex Poir.
  • Selaginella bellula W.Bull
  • Selaginella canaliculata var. durvillaei (Bory) Warb.
  • Selaginella caudata var. durvillei (Bory) Spring
  • Selaginella caudata var. guichenotii Spring
  • Selaginella durvillaei (Bory) A.Braun ex Kuhn
  • Selaginella guichenotii (Spring) Hieron.
  • Selaginella herpocaulos var. acuminata Alderw.
  • Selaginella inaequalifolia var. perelegans (T.Moore) Baker
  • Selaginella perelegans T.Moore

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.