Plants with creeping and erect stems; roots poorly developed. Leaves numerous, simple, 1-veined, with a ligule (membranous flap) on the upper (adaxial) surface, either all leaves simlar and spirally arranged or of 2 kinds and 4-ranked. Sporangia located on the adaxial surface of a sporophyll, these groups in terminal strobili; spores differentiated into megaspores and microspores; megasporophylls located at the base of the strobili, microsporophylls in the upper portion. Spores tetrahedral.
The Selaginellaceae includes around 750 species. Until recently, it was usually treated as including only one genus, Selaginella but, in 2023, Zhou & Zhang argued for recognition of 19 genera in 7 subfamilies. Their treatment, which reflected both phylogenetic and mophological analyses, is adopted in OpenHerbarium. According to it, the three species known from Somaliland and Somalia belong in three different genera: Bryodesma, Pulviniella, and Sinoselaginella.
