Selaginella wallichii

Selaginella wallichii (sometimes misspelled as Selaginella wallichi) is a spikemoss native to China and several countries in Southeast Asia. This is one of the spikemosses actually being distributed mainly into the aquarium hobby via aquarium plant producers.

Whether their identification is correct or not is perhaps a matter of debate, as this form may have also been distributed earlier as Selaginella plana, and may or may not be the same as other Selaginella plana specimens distributed in the vivarium hobby! Regardless, both S. wallichii and S. plana are larger plants (relative to other hobby spikemosses), both come from Asia, and both have somewhat similar growth habits. Ultimately, I don’t change names on plants here unless there’s a really strong case to be made, so for now, we’re sticking with S. wallichii.

General Care Information

Like most any spikemoss, they’ll do well in lower light and high humidity. Pretty standard stuff! S. wallichii can grow more upright, almost bushy, and has a larger form, with thicker stems and leaves overall.

Specimens available in our 2″ pot are the standard vivarium-plant grown in our mix of Organic Promix + Perlite. Selaginella varieties produced via the aquarium trade are distributed in “aquarium plant pots” and are set up in rockwool; they may be “fresher” cuttings based on my experience and may or may not yet have developed much in the way of roots depending on how recently they were potted up. I should emphasize that the aquarium-trade Selaginella are not “aquatic plants” in any fashion!

About MiniWaters Vivarium Plants

Any plant whose cultivation condition is denoted as “sanitized” has been put through MiniWater’s bleach treatment and has been held in animal-free conditions following this treatment. While we do not guarantee our plants to be disease and pest-free, we believe we are offering the lowest-risk plants possible. We encourage all customers to sanitize any plants they purchase from us, or any other vendor or hobbyist, prior to their use with your animals.

Visit www.MiniWaters.fish/vivplants for further details about how we grow our plants animal-free with organic methodologies while integrated pest management protocols, as well as detailed instructions for our bleach-sanitizing process.