Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous often creeping or prostrate vascular plants of the genus Selaginella that bear spores, have small scalelike leaves, and are closely related to the club mosses.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a group of ferny plants of the genus Selaginella; spike moss

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Selāginella, genus name, from Latin selāgō, selāgin-, a plant resembling savin, probably a kind of club moss or selaginella.]

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Examples

  • I adore selaginella but grow it as a terrarium plant.

    First Frost Of Fall « Fairegarden 2009

  • You threw me with the spelling of selaginella, I had to look it up since you usually are correcting me.

    First Frost Of Fall « Fairegarden 2009

  • “If you loved me,” she said trimly, watching the white fingers she plunged among the green branches of a selaginella, “could you write the things you do to me?”

    In the Days of the Comet Herbert George 2006

  • To dress wounds the Kamsá chewed selaginella and tobacco, mixed in urine, and plastered the paste over the injury.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • To dress wounds the Kamsá chewed selaginella and tobacco, mixed in urine, and plastered the paste over the injury.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • The spines are produced in great abundance, and they may be cut freely; their effect is unique when used for table decoration, stuck in tufts of dark green selaginella.

    Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies. John Wood

  • "If you loved me," she said trimly, watching the white fingers she plunged among the green branches of a selaginella, "could you write the things you do to me?"

    In the Days of the Comet 1906

  • The whole cavity is lined more or less thickly, and the lip of the cup all round is usually finished of with these same black fibrous roots; and then outside all moss and selaginella are applied according to the taste of the bird and, probably, the situation -- a few sprigs or a complete coating, as the case may be.

    The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

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