Selaginella goudotiana var. abyssinica (Spring) Bizzarri

goudotiana: the type specimen was collected by M. Goudot in Madagascar; abyssinica: the variety was first described from Abyssinia (now Ethiopia)

Plant slender, semi-prostrate with a more or less erect branch system, not rooting along the stem, sometimes stoloniferous from the stem base, mostly lanceolate in outline and arranged in one plane, repeatedly branched. Leaves dimorphous; median leaves up to 2 × 1 mm, adpressed, ovate to lanceolate in outline, with long tip half as long as the leaf, margins toothed; lateral leaves sessile, up to 3 × 2 mm, ovate in outline, asymmetrical, base oblique, apex rounded, margins toothed. Strobuli 5 × 2 mm, terminal on ultimate branches; sporophylls dimorphous: lateral sporophylls similar to lateral leaves but slightly larger, median sporophylls similar to median leaves but situated on the opposite side of the stem from the median leaves.

A tropical African species