The plants with the most tenacious vitality are known to be of high ornamental value and can also be used as bonsai.

Guide reading

Green potted plant is a necessary embellishment of home life, which can not only beautify the room, but also refresh the mood and nourish nature. There are many advantages in raising flowers and plants at home. "Huasheng potted Plant Diary No. 1065" takes you to know a kind of plant with strong vitality.

Today's protagonist

Speaking of plants with the most tenacious vitality, you may think of cacti, which can also grow in the desert, but there is actually a stronger one that can grow again after it has completely dried up. This kind of plant is Selaginella officinalis, known as "reviving grass from the dead", which has appeared in many martial arts novels, and the picture above is what it really looks like.

Selaginella officinalis

Selaginella is a family Selaginaceae, Selaginella is a native or lithophytic resuscitation plant, mostly born on hillside rocks, under forest trees, or in dry rock crevices, can be found in many places in China, because of extreme drought tolerance, long-term drought, branches and leaves turn yellow, looks "dead" in the case, as long as the root system soaked in water for some time, will re-stretch, coruscate signs of life, hence the name.

Tenacious vitality

This characteristic of Selaginella officinalis is related to its growth environment, because the rock crevice where it grows is very barren, and its water storage capacity is poor, and its growth water source is almost entirely obtained by rain, sometimes even without a drop of water for six months, and when it is dry, the cells of its whole body are dormant, its metabolism almost stops tenaciously, and it looks like it is "dead".

Live in the face of water

When moisture comes, it will glow again, and the leaves will turn yellow to green. The peculiar vitality of Selaginella officinalis has been given a different meaning by people. This is how the titles of "reviving grass from the dead", "evergreen" and "immortal grass" come from, and they are moved back home as an ornamental plant. It is shade-tolerant, drought-tolerant, like the shape of an iron tree, the vigorous simplicity of a pine tree, the tenacity of a cypress tree, evergreen all the seasons, and a good talent for making bonsai.

Selaginella bonsai

Not only can it be watched in pots, but Selaginella officinalis can also be used medicinally. The whole grass has the effect of hemostasis and convergence. When I lived in the countryside when I was a child, if I accidentally broke my ankle, the old people in the family would find several Selaginella officinalis, mash them up, and apply them externally to the wound. Soon, the wound really healed. There are many varieties of Selaginella officinalis, the stronger ornamental is the Phnom Penh Selaginella, the leaf edge is golden, with leaf art, the ornamental value is higher.