About Selaginella kraussiana

More than 400 million years ago, the appearance of vascular plants was an important step in evolution during the colonization of land by plants. Since then, vascular plants have diverged into several lineages, only two of which survive today; the lycophytes such as Selaginella (spikemosses), and the euphyllophytes consisting of monilophytes (ferns), gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Many lycophytes retain the typical features of early vascular plants, and therefore, are suitable for studies on the early evolution of vascular plants. For example, lycophytes have a simple and bifurcating apical meristem at the shoot and root tips (i.e., dichotomous branching), which is representative of early vascular plants during evolution. Selaginella kraussiana is one of the Selaginella species occurring in South Africa and is one of the model lycophytes in scientific research. Selaginella kraussiana is regularly cultivated as an indoor or outdoor plant and is also easy to culture in vitro in the lab. This website provides bioinformatic tools for studies on Selaginella kraussiana.