Tropical Bryology, Volume 3 (1990)
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Desmotheca (Orthotrichaceae) : Gondwanan fragmentation and the origin of a Southeast Asian genus
(1990)
Desmotheca Lindberg was proposed in 1872 as a replacement name for the illegitimate Cryptocarpon Dozy & Molk. (1844) and Cryptocarpus Dozy & Molk. (1846). Seven names have been placed in these genera, from which two species appear to be taxonomically valid. Desmotheca apiculata (Dozy & Molk.) Card. occurs from New Caledonia and New Guinea west to Indonesia and the Andaman Islands, north to Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Mindanao in the Philippines, while D. brachiata (Hook. & Wils.) Vitt comb. nova is restricted to the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The evolution and dispersal of this genus can be related to the northward movement of Gondwanan island blocks during the Cretaceous.
The diagnosis and illustration Veloira (1959) published of her new species Thamnium quisumbingii have made me assume that the species might in fact belong to Neckeropsis. This assumption proved to be correct upon the examination of an isotype present in E.B. Bartram’s herbarium. The plants represent a rather unusual form of Neckeropsis boniana (Besch.) Touw et Ochyra.
A new moss genus and species, Gradsteinia andicola, is described from the northern Andes of Colombia. It is an aquatic moss known sterile and characterized by 1) oblong or oblong-ovate, concave, cucullate and recurved-apiculate leaves with a very strong and variable costa that is basically single but commonly repeatedly branched and spurred from the base, giving the leaves a polycostate appearance; 2) thick-walled, porose and irregularly uni- to multistratose lamina cells; 3) bicellular axillary hairs; 4) the presence of incomplete limbidia; 5) the absence of paraphyllia, pseudoparaphyllia, central strand and alar cells. Until the sporophyte of Gradsteinia becomes known, this very distinct genus is tentatively placed in the family Donrichardsiaceae, based primarily upon the presence of variously multistratose leaf laminae and leaf areolation.
Of the 65 species of Campylopus known from tropical America, 33 are andine in distribution, 16 are found only in SE Brazil, 8 have wide ranges through Central and South America, 3 species are disjunct in SE-North America and Brazil, 3 are confined to the Caribbean and one species belongs to the circum-pacific and one to the tethyan element. For different parts of the Neotropics, the composition of phytogeographical elements is calculated. For the first time, bryophyte distributions are compared to the Pleistocene forest refuges proposed by zoologist and phanerogamists. The distribution of several rainforest species of Campylopus coincides with the major part of the montane refugia. Using an interpretation of the present-day ranges, a hypothetical survey is given of the origin and evolution of this genus in tropical South and Central America. The ranges of part of the species can be explained only by long distance dispersal, while the ranges of other species seem to be relictual.
This catalogue provides an annotated listing of the mosses (MUSCI) reported from the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana), based on work on the Moss Flora of Suriname, which is now nearing completion. In total 238 species in 90 genera are listed. A list of synonyms (including 10 new ones) and a systematic arrangement of the genera and families are also provided. The following new combinations are proposed: Callicostella guatemalensis (Bartr.), Sematophyllum lonchophyllum (Mont.), Sematophyllum pacimoniense (Mitt.) and Trichosteleum intricatum (Thér.).
A floristic and ecological study of bryophytes and macrolichens in different lowland rain forest types around Mabura Hill, Guyana, South America, yielded 170 species: 52 mosses, 82 liverworts and 36 macrolichens. Lejeuneaceae account for about 30% of the species and are the dominant cryptogamic family of the lowland rain forest. Special attention was paid to the flora of the forest canopy, by using mountaineering techniques. It appeared that 50% of the bryophyte species and 86% of the macrolichens occurred exclusively in the canopy. Dry evergreen 'walaba' forest on white sand is particularly rich in lichens whereas the more humid 'mixed' forest on loamy soil is characterized by a rather rich liverwort flora. More species are exclusive to the mixed forest than to dry evergreen forest due to the 'canopy effect', i.e. the occurrence of xerophytic species in the outer canopy of both dry and humid forests. Furthermore, canopy species have wider vertical distributions on trees in the dry evergreen forest than in the mixed forest, due to the more open canopy foliage of the dry evergreen forest.
Based on a study of ca. 120 Fissidens species covering all sections and subgenera, three types of costae are recognized. One type is characteristic of sect. Amblyothallia and of F. asplenioides, F. fasciculatus and F. plumosus (the fasciculatus group); the second of subg. Serridium, subg. Fissidens sect. Crispidium andF. Grandifrons (subg. Pachyfissidens) and the third type of subg. Fissidens sect. Fissidens, sect. Aloma, sect. Crenularia, sect. Semilimbidium, sect. Pycnothallia, and sect. Areofissidens, subg. Octodiceras, and subg. Sarawakia.
The Holomitrium-complex (consisting of Holomitrium, Eucamptodontopsis, and Schliephackea) is a group of closely related genera in the Dicranaceae characterized by five features: 1. a strong single costa, 2. well developed alar cells, 3. long, sheathing perichaetial leaves, 4. erect capsules, and 5. undivided peristome teeth. Holomitrium sinuosum is newly described. Dicranoloma brittonae is transferred to Eucamptodontopsis. Holomitrium standleyi is a synonym of H. arboreum. Breedlovea chiapensis is a synonym of Holomitrium pulchellum and the genus Breedlovea is placed into the synonymy of Holomitrium.