Selaginella moritziana Spring ex Klotzsch, Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci.

Smith, Alan R. & Kessler, Michael, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. III. Selaginellaceae, Phytotaxa 344 (3), pp. 248-258 : 254

Selaginella moritziana Spring ex Klotzsch, Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci. Belgique 24: 249. 1849.

Range: —Mountains from Mexico to Panama, and from Venezuela to Bolivia (CO, LP).

Ecology: —Uncommon; humid forests, marshy meadows, pastures, roadbanks, and on wet rocks; 1600–3100 m.

Notes: —Most similar to Selaginella popayanensis , which has minutely hairy adaxial leaf surfaces (vs. glabrous), and S. cavifolia , which has more obtuse lateral leaves and broader sporophylls. This species, like S. novae-hollandiae and a few others, sometimes bears sobols near stem bases.

Bolivian specimens are assigned to S. moritziana var. moritziana ; var. pearcei (Baker) Valdespino , from Costa Rica to Peru, may occur in Bolivia. It differs from var. moritziana by short, submarginal hairs near the basiscopic margin on the adaxial side of the lateral leaves (vs. glabrous or nearly so), a short tuft of hairs on the outer bases of the median leaves (vs. glabrous), and conspicuous idioblasts on the adaxial surfaces of the median leaves (vs. inconspicuous) ( Valdespino & Zimmer 2016).