Selaginella bryopteris
An Indian resurrection spikemoss that grows on rocks in the tropical hills, especially the Aravalli range. In the dry season it curls into a brown ball and looks dead, then unfurls and turns green within hours of rain. It is famous in India as sanjeevani, the life-restoring herb of legend. To grow it, give it a wet, warm growing season and then let it dry out, rather than keeping it constantly moist like a rainforest Selaginella.
Where it grows wild
A lithophyte of rocky hill slopes, growing on rock and in thin soil in rock crevices in seasonally dry tropical hill country. It is poikilohydric: when moisture runs out, the fronds roll up into tight brown balls, and they rehydrate, green up and resume growth when rain returns.
The sources describe it only as a plant of tropical hills such as the Aravallis; no elevation range was found. The Aravallis mostly lie between about 300 and 1,000 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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More Selaginella
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 2.1 es licence, unmodified.