#fern ally

[insidetheboxplants]

Equisetum telmateia Ehrh.

[Spain]

[insidetheboxplants]

Selaginella nothohybrida Valdespino

[Oaxaca, Mexico]

[popbotany]

The arrangement of this specimen (Selaginella lepidophylla) reminds me of a turkey’s tail. 

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Image courtesy of the C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium of The New York Botanical Garden (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/vh/) 

[theplanthouse]

12/14/16: Selaginella willdenowii or “Peacock fern”; plant species that is a type of “spikemoss fern” and is considered a fern ally, not a true fern, meaning it has characteristics like that of a true fern, but it is not technically classified as such. This species is unique in that it has iridescent blue leaves! The iridescence is apparently caused by something called “thin-film interference” produced by a thin layer of cells part of the cuticle layer, above the epidermis (the outer “skin” of the plant). The theory behind this adaptation is that is helped reduce light intensity from the sun! 

-Jessica

[insidetheboxplants]

Palhinhaea cernua (L.) Vasc. & Franco

[orbiculator]

This is a spikemoss, from genus Selaginella. It's actually still quite related to ferns, and used to belong to the same division as ferns do, but these days people prefer to put them into Division Lycopodiophyta.

The blue color is caused by structural iridescence. From my experience, the color will vanish once you flip the leaf away from light source, or if you grow the plant in shadier parts of the garden (in which the plant will lack iridescence completely).