Tropical Bryology, Volume 8 (1993)
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A check-list of the Hepaticae and Anthocerotae from Central Africa (Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi) is presented. 267 liverwort species and 4 hornworts are recognized for the area. For Zaire 215 Hepaticae and 3 species of Anthocerotae are recorded. In Rwanda 150 liverworts and one hornwort have been found. Burundi is far less known and only 48 Hepaticae are recorded.
Neckera submacrocarpa may be recognized by the numerous paraphyllia to ca. 2 mm long, and distally rugose perichaetial leaves. According to De Sloover (1977), it occurs in montane forests and Senecio heaths between 2 400 and 3 650 m. The present material was collected between 3 400 and 3 700 m; one specimen was growing on rotten wood and the others on Senecio. Neckera submacrocarpa is endemic to Africa, being mainly distributed on the mountains of East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, Rwanda). A disjunct occurrence is located on Mt. Cameroon.
Six species and one variety of Sphagnum have been recorded from Rwanda and Zaire. Three of these were collected during the BRYOTROP field studies and are annotated below. A key is given to all the species known to occur in the region with the addition of one extra species (S. truncatum Hornsch.) which is likely, on ecological and distributional grounds, to be found there in the future. Authorship and complete synonymies are given in Eddy (1985).
This very distinctive and easily recognized moss has terete foliation when dry, and has leaves spreading when moist. The leaves are ovate, abruptly broad-acuminate, about 1.5-2 mm long, and strongly plicate. The single costa extends to the base of the acumen, and the laminal cells are 1-2(-3):1 and low unipapillose.
For locality data and a description of the collecting sites see the contribution by E. Fischer on the vegetation of the study area in this volume (Tropical Bryology 8: 13-37, 1993). The specimens are deposited at the Botanical MuseumBerlin (B) as well as in the herbarium of the author (except for unicates).
Central Africa was one of the first regions in the tropics, if not the first, for which a checklist of mosses was compiled. In 1940, Demaret published the "Prodrome des Bryophytes du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi", followed by a supplement in 1946. In the 50 years since that time, numerous new contributions to the bryophyte flora of Central Africa have been made. Demaret added seven more publications on Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo). Potier de la Varde studied the bryophyte collections made during the surveys of the flora of the Central African volcanoes by Hedberg.
Taxonomic results of the Bryotrop expedition to Zaire and Rwanda : 6., Aytoniaceae, Marchantiaceae
(1993)
A subspecies known with certainty only from Europe. Its electrophoretic pattern separates it clearly from the other subspecies of M. polymorpha , but its morphological characteristics are not clearly distinctive (Boisselier & Bischler 1989) . However, the tropical African specimens from Kenya and Tanzania, together with those of Rwanda, probably belong to this subspecies. It grows on wet soil in Senecio refractisquamata paramo and on cliffs in Hagenia- Dombeya forests, between 2700 and 3600 m. M. polymorpha has not yet been recorded from Rwanda.