Sandy’s Garden ... Hoots Mon! and Marten’s Spikemoss

A week ago, I doubted whether any readers would remember a band called Lord Rockingham’s XI, let alone remember the short-lived hit single from which the immortal line, “There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose,” was quoted.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Nov 2019, 09:23 BST
Sandy SimpsonSandy Simpson
Sandy Simpson

Well, he’s not a reader of this column: but when I mentioned my doubting whether any readers were old enough or had sufficient memory to recall this group and its brief success to a friend of long standing, to my astonishment he immediately said, “Yes, late 1950s; I’ve got that record; and the song was called … oh, what was it called? … ‘Shoot, man’ or something like that – ‘Hoots mon!’ that was it.” Well done! The actual year was 1958, but I think ‘late 1950s’ is close enough to be worth two points. Wow! I think I’m doing well to remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

This preamble has nothing whatsoever to do with the principal subject of this week’s column, which is another plant which I admired in a local garden centre and about which I knew absolutely nothing until a few hours ago. The neat little pot plant carried a label announcing that it was a Selaginella martensii and offering the further information that it was known as ‘Marten’s spikemoss.’ In quest of further information, I turned to that usual fount of knowledge, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), whose website offered this: “Selaginella martensii ‘Variegata’ (v) Family: Selaginellaceae Name Status: Not found in literature.” Hmmm. Well, let’s start with Selaginella which I learn from another source is, “Any of various simple vascular plants, of the family Selaginellaceae, that resemble mosses and produce spores.” And simple vascular plants are defined as ‘plants that have specialised tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. They include the ferns, clubmosses, horsetails, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms.’ We’re getting there, for we have learned that, despite its name ‘spikemoss’, it cannot be a true moss for true mosses are not simple vascular plants. It’s a plant which looks like a moss.

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Continuing my quest, I learn … gradually … that Marten’s spikemoss comes originally from Mexico and Central America. It is a member of a very large family of plants … the Selaginellaceae family … which, in the correct locations, can become invasive. This will not be a problem for plant-lovers in Scotland, for the plant’s native territory is a part of the world where the minimum temperature very seldom falls as low as 8°C … say, 45°F … which means it has no chance of surviving, let alone thriving, in a garden in or within hundreds of miles of Falkirk. However, this does not prevent Marten’s spikemoss from being an attractive, small, evergreen foliage houseplant, provided it is accorded the care which it needs. Being members of the same plant type as ferns, they like to be well watered and kept fairly warm with high humidity. In terms of the ambient temperature, the living area of the house should be warm enough to keep the plant happy. The one problem with a nice cosy living room is that the air tends to be too dry for a spikemoss; and the solution to that is either to dampen the foliage regularly with a mist spray, sit the plant’s pot in a shallow dish with some small stones and water or keep the plant in some form of terrarium … a glass cage. The last option is probable the one which the plant will be happiest with – and the first option is that which is most likely to upset the domestic authorities if the water spray reaches decorative surfaces which are damaged by this act of trespass!

With its liking for a humid atmosphere, Marten’s spikemoss should be kept out of direct sunlight; and its planting medium should be slightly acidic – it will be in suitable soil when you buy it: but if you need to top the soil up use (sssh, I didn’t write this) a little peat.