Marsilea schelpeana is a fern of seasonally dry areas where water is commonly present during the rainy season, or where water level fluctuates from one season to another. Marsileas undergo three different growth stages; the arrival of rains, stimulates germination of spores or dormant subterranean rhizomes produces fronds with 4 characteristic clover-like leaflets, botanically known as pinnae. Then during the period of rapid rhizome growth, leaves are usually flooded and grow into the surface where they float upon the water, since the spores and rhizomes grow in mud; in this stage there is usually no production of spore-cases (sporocarps). As the water moves away in late summer and autumn, the fronds are forced to stand erect, although rhizomes may remain inundated. The third stage is reached once the water has dried up and the plants are left growing on rapidly drying mud or sand. When the rhizome growth slows down, new fronds become smaller, the sporocarps are now produced above the rhizomes in the case of M. schelpeana, the surface dries up, leaves die off, sporocarps matures and the plant goes dormant as to withstand the dry season. Beginnings of rain also help sporocarps to release their spores, probably with the help of parasitic insects that bore holes into the sporocarps to crack the very hard sporocarps walls.