Latin deflexus, to bend down, referring to the reflexed leaves.

Plants small, clustered, spikelike terrestrial. Stems creeping filiform, repeatedly dichotomously branched, radially symmetrical, upright stems unbranched, round, 5-30 cm x 2-:3 mm in diam. (including scales), Without rhizophores; sterile leaves uniform spirally arranged, spreading or reflexed: lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2-4 x 0.75-1.5 mm, margins with needle-shaped projections, tips acuminate; fertile leaves lanceolate-tringular, larger than sterile leaves, margins wtth needle-shaped projections, 2-5 x 0.75-1.5 mm, tips acuminate; strobili unbranched terminal on the stems, 1.5-15 cm long, resembling the sterile shoots but about twice as thick.

lnfrequent, but locally common, usually growmg in wet moss in open, mossy bogs, 1,050-1,500 m, on all major islands except Lana'i.

Selaginella deflexa is closely related to the circumboreal S. selaginelloides (L.) P. Beauv., the only other species in subgenus Selaginella, from which it differs in having smaller, reflexed leaves.

Very different from the other Hawaiian Selaginella species, S. deflexa may be recognized by its smaller size; spikelike growth form; small, needlelike leaves with pointed marginal projections; strobili that are larger than the sterile stems; and its terrestrial habitat in bogs.