Open Access

Jan-Peter Frahm

• The mediterranean vegetation is determined by a seasonal climate with hot and dry summers and cold and rainy winters. These contrasting seasons determine much the bryopohyte flora by the way that part of the species are winter annual and show up only during the rainy seasons but diasappear over the summer. Therefore the best season for observing and collecting bryophytes are the months January to March or April. As a consequence, a high percentage of mosses and liverworts are winter ephemerals, finishing its live cycle within two months such as many acrocarpous mosses, or „oversummer“ the dry period in dry state almost not visible such as many thalloid liverworts. This counts for the true mediterranean vegetation, which is found in the coastal areas around the Mediterranean Sea up to some hundred meters altitude, which is focussed in this books. The mountain areas as well as the temperate forests show a more temperate flora. Therefore the bryoflora of the higher regions is similar to that of Central Europe is is not concerned. Aim of this book is not to give an academic seminar on the ecology, altitudinal zonation, regional biodiversity or structural adaptation of mediterranean bryophytes nor to give bibliographies for regional or complete (there is only one for liverworts) checklists or books for identifications but an illustrated guide to the mosses and liverworts of the Mediterranean with some comments on the species.