Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.

Selaginella oaxacana Spring

Selaginellaceae · Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +8

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.5°C
Record low 9.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,335mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, June to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Selaginella

Selaginella, also known as spikemosses or lesser clubmosses, is a genus of lycophyte. It is usually treated as the only genus in the family Selaginellaceae, with over 750 known species.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Selaginella", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,506 mm of 3,355 mm) falls in June to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,355 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,506 mm of it June to November. Wettest month September at 504 mm, driest month March at 88 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,680 mm to 5,479 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,335 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,355 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.5 °C, the absolute minimum 9.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.5 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 72% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +598 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Selaginella oaxacana through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.3 °C; 3,355 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°32.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 24–39RH 64–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 43 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 19–2824 / 20–2825 / 21–2927 / 22–2926 / 22–2925 / 21–2825 / 21–2825 / 21–2825 / 21–2824 / 20–2724 / 20–2723 / 19–27
Night °C16 / 11–2217 / 11–2318 / 12–2318 / 14–2319 / 15–2319 / 15–2319 / 14–2319 / 14–2319 / 15–2318 / 14–2218 / 12–2217 / 11–22
Rain mm132 / 79–413109 / 78–40588 / 49–431111 / 55–546185 / 119–569420 / 302–543410 / 298–583448 / 310–625504 / 370–632417 / 290–753307 / 174–620224 / 121–506
DLI25 / 22–3330 / 27–3636 / 29–3939 / 27–4238 / 25–4232 / 23–3633 / 23–3632 / 24–3529 / 24–3327 / 22–3025 / 21–2924 / 20–30
RH %68 / 65–7266 / 63–7064 / 61–6864 / 60–7065 / 63–7470 / 67–7571 / 66–7471 / 66–7572 / 68–7571 / 66–7670 / 66–7669 / 66–73
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 43 grid cells holding the 55 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1434:1702 (18.275, -94.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 43 distinct grid cells holding 55 of the 55 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1434:1702 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-95.000, lapse-corrected +598 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 695 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker8.767, -83.3 · in the densest population, 141 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 234 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 55 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 220 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 179 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 234 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Palicourea elata Palicourea elata Hooker's lips Photo: CC BY, Martin JungAmphitecna macrophylla Amphitecna macrophylla Bigleaf black calabash Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberBegonia glabra Begonia glabra Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, er-birdsGuzmania donnellsmithii Guzmania donnellsmithii Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason AlexanderCostus montanus Costus montanus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Alan RockefellerCochleanthes aromatica Cochleanthes aromatica Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Dan MacNeal

Other Selaginella 71 in the reference

Selaginella amoena Selaginellaceae Selaginella apoda Selaginella apoda Meadow spikemoss Photo: CC BY, Anne ParkerSelaginella arizonica Selaginella arizonica Arizona spikemoss Photo: CC BY, Rachel StringhamSelaginella biformis Selaginella biformis Selaginellaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSelaginella bigelovii Selaginella bigelovii Bushy spikemoss Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerSelaginella braunii Selaginella braunii Braun's spikemoss Photo: CC BY-SA, Cymothoa exiguaSelaginella bryopteris Selaginella bryopteris Selaginellaceae Photo: CC BY, Shikha SreenivasSelaginella concinna Selaginella concinna Selaginellaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, patrice lefebvreSelaginella convoluta Selaginella convoluta Selaginellaceae Photo: CC BY, stephenSelaginella delicatula Selaginella delicatula Delicate spikemoss Photo: CC BY, Yu-Chang ChenSelaginella denticulata Selaginella denticulata Toothed-leaved Clubmoss Photo: CC BY, Sami TörnblomSelaginella diffusa Selaginella diffusa Selaginellaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Salix all 72 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Lycopodioides oaxacana; Lycopodium flabellatum var. strictum; Selaginella costaricensis; Selaginella formosa; Selaginella wendlandii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Selaginellaceae
Described by
Spring
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +7
Wild records
234 in range · 220 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-95.000, lapse-corrected +598 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…