Selaginella kraussiana ‘Gold Tips’

Selaginella kraussiana ‘Gold Tips’ is a cultivar of the popular spikemoss, Selaginella kraussiana. A low, ground-hugging plant with a distinctive yellow colouring on the terminal fan of leaves, Selaginella kraussiana ‘Gold Tips’ - like the type species - is hardy in warmer parts of the UK or it can be grown as an attractive undemanding plant for indoors. It requires a moist substrate, shade and moist air so if grown indoors it is ideal in a bathroom or on a kitchen window sill.

The type species, Selaginella kraussiana, despite its tropical origins, has become naturalised in some parts of the UK and if growing 'Gold Tips' outdoors, responsible care should be exercised to ensure it doesn't escape beyond the garden and into the natural environment. Selagnella species are representatives of the Isoetopsida, the Spikemosses or Lesser Clubmosses, ancient fern allies who differ from the true Clubmosses by the presence of a tiny scale-like ligule on the upper surface of each leaf close to where it joins the stem and by having two different types of spore. With just one vein, the leaf is technically a microphyll. The terminal growing tip of Selagnella typically divide into two, forming a distinctive Y-shaped branch. In 'Gold Tips' it is this Y-shaped branch that is yellow giving the cultivar its name.