Talk:Selaginella lepidophylla

please polish language — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.80.49.87 (talk) 19:10, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

2007[edit]

There isn't a lot to say about this plant. It wouldn't rate a page if it wasn't a popular houseplant, and even that is only due to its novelty status. I linked ePhylum's excellent description but I cannot currently find Hooker & Greville's original work on the topic. It ought to be online somewhere, though. And I am going to delete the mobility comment as I cannot currently substantiate it. Vreejack 16:19, 31 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rose of Jericho[edit]

Need to be combined with Rose of Jericho. Yosri 12:15, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's now a redirect to Spikemoss for Selaginella lepidophylla, which redirects back to Rose of Jericho -- there are two plants with the common name Rose of Jericho. The image on Rose of Jericho is not Anastatica hierochuntica -- it is Selaginella lepidophylla (which is a spikemoss, NOT a fern, as stated in the redirect). Sci girl 04:07, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I reverted the page to differentiate Anastatica hierochuntica from Selaginella lepidophylla. -- Sci girl 04:17, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Re the confusion between this and Anastatica, is it enough to mention that a few days ago I did a little disambiguating of the two on Commons? And that they share several common names? --Una Smith (talk) 17:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cleanup[edit]

I have cleaned up this page a bit. Now Rose of Jericho is a disambiguation page. Czech Wikipedia has a cool animation of the plant uncurling.[1] --Una Smith (talk) 16:24, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Tumbleweed?[edit]

I'd like to see a reference for this being a tumbleweed. Is it megaspores and microspores that disperse, male and female gametophytes, or does fertilization take place on the plant and the gametophytes are dispersed with the included sporelings? Do the plants survive after tumbling, or is that the end of the line?--Curtis Clark (talk) 03:20, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Curtis, do you want a reference that applies the common name "tumbleweed" to this species, or one that describes its tumbling? Re what happens after tumbling, I don't know the details of their life history, but I do know this: They are shipped in the tumbleweed state, a tight dry ball. Placed in a shallow dish of water, within hours they unfurl and then green up (in that order). By anecdote, they can dry out and rehydrate over and over again. --Una Smith (talk) 17:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Either one. I don't have the reference at hand, but my understanding is that, absent their extensive root system, the rehydration is cosmetic. In my own experience, they can de- and rehydrate repeatedly, but after repeated rehydration most of it is mechanical, and most of the cells are dead, as evidenced by their decomposition when left moist.

Based on my experiences and reading, I would have not expected the species to ever be a tumbleweed. The plants that are sold as resurrection plants obviously have their root systems cut. I have never seen photos (or actual plants, in my few visits to the Chihuahuan Desert) of loose plants in habitat. Selaginellopsid spores often form the endosporic gametophytes while still in the sporangia, but to the best of my knowledge, sperm release and fertilization doesn't occur until they are released, and the male and female gametophytes will necessarily have very different aerodynamic properties, so that they would not likely land close enough together from a tumbling sporophyte for the sperm to have any likelihood of reaching the archegonia. (Of course, this is an issue for wind dispersal as well, and it has, to my knowledge, never been satisfactorily explained.)

In short, back in my faculty days, if I found a reference that said that it was a tumbleweed, I'd try to get a publication out of showing that it couldn't possibly be.--Curtis Clark (talk) 03:33, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. The steppe tumbleweeds definitely shed seeds as they tumble, but I doubt the desert tumbleweeds do. That would be maladaptive. Their strategy seems to be to tumble until they reach a low and/or wet spot, and to hold onto their propagules until thoroughly wet. That is why they unfurl even though quite dead. The fact that they unfurl before greening is evidence (I might even say proof) that the mechanism is, as Curtis says, mechanical. In which category (steppe, desert, or other) do the earthstars belong? --Una Smith (talk) 03:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As much as I like speculation, it seems like we would need to establish all this with literature references to put it in Wikipedia.--Curtis Clark (talk) 14:22, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am working on that. --Una Smith (talk) 16:27, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editors of this article have forgotten to include information about the longevity of the plant[edit]

What is it? 93.185.19.160 (talk) 21:00, 17 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Organismal Diversity B[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 October 2023 and 11 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Avucic25 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Avucic25 (talk) 15:40, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]