Selaginella abyssinica Spring
Selaginella kirkii Baker
Selaginella whytei Hieron.
Selaginella goetzei Hieron.
Selaginella bueensis Hieron.
Selaginella preussii Hieron.
Selaginella molliceps sensu Bak.

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, 3-40 cm long. Leaves dimorphous; median leaves adpressed, ovate in outline, with long tip half as long as the leaf, margins toothed, up to 3 × 1 mm; lateral leaves sessile, ovate to lanceolate in outline, asymmetrical, base oblique, apex rounded, margins toothed, up to 3 × 2 mm. Strobuli terminal on ultimate branches, up to 5 × 2 mm; 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.

Can be confused with S. kraussiana which is widely creeping and roots along the length of the stem.

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

Seasonally moist areas in evergreen and deciduous forest, along stream and earth banks, on mossy boulders and floor layer, light or deeply shaded.

See African distribution.

Angola, Benin, Burundi, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Lithophytic, terrestrial.