treehaus

I've managed to kill a couple myself, so I'm as interested as you are in finding out how to do it. It's hard to keep that wet/dry, acid/base, and calcium balance, but I suspect there's even more to it than that.

Lainey

Happy growing,
treehaus

This looks great! One question that was raised by Lainey was the matter of alkalinity vs acidity. Is this a factor that requires consideration for the potting medium these Selags need?

Thanks again.

treehaus

In Minnesota I have seen S. rupestris growing in cracks in exposed granite beds, where they appear to receive full sun.
Perhaps the granite keeps the roots cool in the summer, I do not know.

treehaus

Surface substrate of chipped limestone fragments with various large intruding boulders of sedimentary to igneous rock which may indicate lots of subterranean fracturing that may form pockets where finer soils may accumulate and/or pockets of water may reside. With rain and the rapid percolation into the substrate water is captured in the pockets, with or without soil. As surface temps rise water vaporizes creating a subterranean humidity chamber of sorts and in doing so rises up into the more surface layers. As night approaches the soil cools, the water vapor condenses, the plants drink. Also with their extensive rooting system pockets of trapped water may actually be tapped (?).

I would definitely love to see images of Selaginella population in their native habitats!!! Besides S. bigelovii which I will be journaling and posting onsite in the near future.

On the location. What is the exposure of the plants, south facing? Got an image of the overall population? The moss looks dry. Is there any water in the immediate area: a pool, stream, ?? If so how far away from the water are the plants?

Your images are really fantastic. Like to write?? I would like to twist your arm to write about that population with images!!!

Please do take a close look at those leaf bases as I would like to know if your plants extend the range of densa or not!!

I took another look at the pictures and unfortunately have not been able to determine from them whether or not the leaf bases match your descriptions. It may be however, that I do not fully grasp the distinction you are referring to. I will attach below a link to my Flickr page - there you can click on the individual images of the Selaginella to see larger versions - hopefully this will reveal the details you are looking for.

Regarding the location: I found the Selaginella growing on an outcrop of granite rock that at its highest point probably rose no more than 5 or 6 feet above the surrounding landscape. I would not say the plants were growing on the south facing aspect of the rock, because essentially, the rock lacked "faces". The outcrop is smooth, and seemingly of one single formation, and there is nothing rugged about it - it has gently sloping gradations - no jutting formations or crevices or anything that could produce shade. The nearest trees are too far away to produce shade except perhaps at sunrise or sunset. From everything I could tell, the Selaginella in this location was probably exposed to the sun all day. The moss the Selaginella was growing in was very dry. I inspected the soil beneath the moss however, and found it to be very dense and cakey and not porous whatsoever, and it was surprisingly damp. There is no water in the immediate area - but there are decent sized quarry pools maybe 200 feet away. The granite was higher than the surrounding area, so there was no standing water on the granite. I don't think I have a picture of the overall population, but I will check later - the clumps of Selaginella, although relatively numerous, were each not much more than 1' in diameter a piece. For now, I have the following image which shows how dry the habitat atop the granite is.

Unfortunately I am not certain of the orientation of the granite outcrop. My hunch is that it ran diagonally from NW to SE, but I was somewhat lost myself when I arrived there, and didn't have a good sense of the cardinal directions.

Thanks again for the IDs, and let me know if you're able to discern anything from the pictures I took. Perhaps I will have to make a return trip to the granite outcrop sometime in the near future to make more thorough observations.

-treehaus

treehaus