Selaginella asprella appears to be a species that is limited in its distribution to the mountains which border the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of southern California. Its northernmost limit appear to be the mountains that border Antelope Valley in the Transverse Ranges. However, several maps indicate a
presence in Tulare County. I believe that this reported occurrence is in error and represents a mis-identified sample of S. hansenii. The map at the Jepson Online Herbarium shows this discrepancy.
Jepson Online
Don Davis has a number of excellent photos that he has posted at flickr on
the species and its habitat.
Habitat
Colony of the species
Close up of the species
Keir Morse has just made a fantastic series of photographs of the species found in the San Jacinto Mountains, east of Los Angeles. To see the 23 images please click on
this link.