These ancient plants can survive total dehydration by curling into dormant brown balls.

Gardening · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Known as spikemosses, Selaginella species are masters of survival. While most plants wither in drought, these resilient lycophytes can dry out completely, uprooting themselves to roll away as brown spheres. Once moisture returns, they rehydrate, turn green, and resume growth, a remarkable phenomenon known as poikilohydry.

Selaginella is a genus of over 750 species with a fossil record stretching back more than 300 million years to the Late Carboniferous. Unlike common mosses, these are vascular plants that feature scale-like leaves and branching stems. They are heterosporous, meaning they produce two distinct types of spores, and some species, such as Selaginella rupestris, keep their megaspores attached to the parent plant until the embryo has developed its own roots and leaves.

The genus is biologically unique for its adaptation to low-light environments. About 70% of species are monoplastidic, possessing a single giant chloroplast per cell, which allows them to thrive in deep shade where they receive as little as 0.4% of full sunlight. In contrast, species living in open, sun-drenched areas contain multiple chloroplasts per cell. This trait appears to have evolved independently at least twice as a specialized response to light availability.

Taxonomically, the group remains a subject of intense debate. While traditionally treated as a single genus, modern phylogenetic studies suggest the group is highly diverse. Researchers have proposed breaking the genus into as many as 19 separate groups to better reflect their evolutionary history. The genus Selaginella itself, as originally defined by Palisot de Beauvois in the early 19th century, represents only a small, basal clade sister to all other species, meaning most of the plants currently labeled as Selaginella may eventually be reclassified into new or resurrected genera.

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