Introduction. Following on from work on the European bryophyte Red List, the taxonomically and nomenclaturally updated spreadsheets used for that project have been expanded into a new checklist for the bryophytes of Europe. Methods. A steering group of ten European bryologists was convened, and over the course of a year, the spreadsheets were compared with previous European checklists, and all changes noted. Recent literature was searched extensively. A taxonomic system was agreed, and the advice and expertise of many European bryologists sought. Key results. A new European checklist of bryophytes, comprising hornworts, liverworts and mosses, is presented. Fifteen new combinations are proposed. Conclusions. This checklist provides a snapshot of the current European bryophyte flora in 2019. It will already be out-of-date on publication, and further research, particularly molecular work, can be expected to result in many more changes over the next few years.
For the first time in bryophyte studies, we performed comprehensive cloning of the ITS region to reveal intraindividual variation of ITS sequences. We assessed relationships among morphologically defined taxa of the polyploid complex of the moss Tortula muralis. Our results detected a monophyletic T. muralis complex comprising T. muralis subsp. mura lis, T. muralis subsp. obtusifolia, T. lingulata, T. israelis, and T. edentula. The single accession of T. edentula was found nested within T. obtusifolia, and biphyletic T. israelis was found to be nested within T. muralis. With the exception of T. lingulata, intragenomic ITS sequence variation was high in the T. muralis complex. Most intraindividual sequences were nevertheless only weakly divergent, suggesting their origin via mutations exceeding the rates of concerted evolution. Markedly divergent sequences found within a single individual most probably resulted from gene flow among distant lineages of the complex. Such pattern of ITS variation challenges the traditional morphology-based taxonomy. No phylogenetic signal was associated with ploidy-level variation, suggesting a polytopic origin of the diploids. Interestingly, the pattern of ITS variation together with morphological evidence indicate the autopolyploid origin of some lineages, which renders the T. muralis complex the first group of mosses in which autopolyploidy is implied by molecular markers.
The taxonomy of pleurocarpous mosses has long been based on a few key characters such as the presence or absence of a single costa or the posture of the leaves. Molecular analyses performed in the past two decades have often challenged the traditional familial and generic delimitations, as these simple characters have evolved repeatedly. For nearly a century the genus Hypnum has been defined principally by the combination of falcate leaves with a short double costa, differentiated alar cells and the mostly procumbent growth form. Although several earlier treatments revealed the polyphyly of Hypnum in its traditional sense, none of them included a representative selection of the species on a worldwide basis. Therefore, we sampled most of the taxa that were attributed to the genus by the monographer H. Ando, and performed a molecular phylogenetic analysis using DNA sequence data from two chloroplast loci and the nuclear ribosomal ITS region. The outcome of this analysis was a revision of the phylogenetic affinities of these representative taxa; we also matched more than 15 molecularly defined lineages of Hypnum s.l. to morphological characters and solved several nomenclatural problems. Consequently, we suggest taxonomic and nomenclatural re-arrangements, which encompass the vast majority of taxa attributed to Hypnum and do not contradict their known molecular affinities. We deliver additional support for some of the most recent delimitations of Hypnum s.l. but introduce new data to refute the proposals for the segregation of the genera Lignocariosa and Insomniella, which can be accommodated in the existing genera Pseudohygrohypnum and Calohypnum, respectively. Similarly, we dispute the inclusion of Hypnum sauteri in Anacamptodon and propose the establishment of a new genus for this species. Instead of placing Callicladium in the Hypnaceae and Jochenia in the Entodontaceae, respectively, we propose new families for these two genera. Finally, we propose three other new genera to accommodate (1) Hypnum circinale, (2) H. chrysogaster with H. subchrysogaster, and (3) H. dieckii, respectively. The main diagnostic features of Hypnum in earlier treatments are shown to represent broadly distributed homoplastic characters, correlated with adaptation to the habitat conditions, such as the moisture content.
Rare epixylic moss Buxbaumia viridis, which is one of the "Annex II" species of the European "Habitat directive", has been recorded at 124 localities in the Czech Republic in course of the last 13 years. Most of them were discovered in the last five years following a dedicated search at both historical sites of occurrence and new localities with putatively suitable habitat conditions. The recent and historical area of occupancy and extent of occurrence are not obviously different, although most of the recent localities are concentrated in the Western Carpathians and the Hrubý Jeseník Mts. Surprisingly, only 38% of the localities are located in natural forest habitats, of which herb-rich and acidophilous beech forests were among the most commonly inhabited ones. The rest of occurrences were recorded in non-natural forests (habitats strongly influenced or created by man), particularly the coniferous forest plantations. Sufficient amount of decaying wood of the advanced decay stages, as well as sufficient and constant humidity are crucial prerequisites for the occurrence of B. viridis in both types of forests. True epixylic moss Herzogiella seligeri and the liverwort Chiloscyphus profundus were recorded as the most common associated species, while the rest of commonly co-occurring species were facultatively epixylic, ground or ubiquitous bryophytes; other specialized and rare epixylic mosses or liverworts were only rarely recorded. We also designed a potential distribution model for B. viridis based on the distribution of habitats most commonly occupied by the studied moss. Despite the simplicity of the model, its close match with the recent distribution in the Western Carpathians, the Hrubý Jeseník Mts. and Šumava Mts. supports its relevance for the real distribution of B. viridis.
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