Lycopodium kraussianum Kunze

Naturalized Spreading selaginella

Name honors Christian Ferdinand Friedrich von Krauss (1812-1890), German botanist and zoologist who received his doctorate at Heidelberg in 1836, traveled in South Africa 1838-1840, and after 1840 served in various capacities at the natural history museum in Stuttgart.

Plants creeping, terrestrial. Stems prostrate, long-creeping, repeatedly branched, thin, occasionally jointed or swollen at bases of branches, ultimate lateral branches short, ascending, 1-to 3-forked; rhizophores aris-ing on upper surfaces of stems at bases of branches throughout their length, 0.25-0.5 mm in diam. Sterile leaves of unequal size throughout, thin; lateral leaves spreading at right angles to stems, flattened in a horizontal plane, lanceolate, 2-3.5 x 0.75-1 mm, bases rounded, wider on one side, margins entire, tips acute; median leaves appressed to upper stem surfaces, linear-lanceolate, 2-2.5 x 0.5-0.75 mm, tips acuminate;fertile leaves smaller than sterile leaves, ovate-lanceolate, keeled, tips acuminate. Strobili terminal on short branches, narrower than stems, 2-15 mm long.

Common in lawns, and along edges of fields, trails, and roadsides in mesic and wet areas on O'ahu, Maui, and Hawai'i. First collected in Hawai 'i in 1938 in the Kilauea area of Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park on Hawai'i Island.

The most popular Selaginella in cultivation, S. kraussiana is native to tropical and southern Africa and has escaped to become an established weed in many places throughout the world.

Selaginella kraussiana may be recog-nized by its long-creeping, prostrate, repeatedly branching main stem with ascend-ing lateral branches, and rhizophores arising at the bases of most branches along their entire length.