FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND MOSSES BRACHYTHECIACEAE A.J. FIFE Fascicle 46 – JUNE 2020 © Landcare Research New Zealand Limited 2020. Unless indicated otherwise for specific items, this copyright work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence Attribution if redistributing to the public without adaptation: "Source: Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research" Attribution if making an adaptation or derivative work: "Sourced from Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research" See Image Information for copyright and licence details for images. CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Fife, Allan J. (Allan James), 1951- Flora of New Zealand : mosses. Fascicle 46, Brachytheciaceae / Allan J. Fife. -- Lincoln, N.Z. : Manaaki Whenua Press, 2020. 1 online resource ISBN 978-0-947525-65-1 (pdf) ISBN 978-0-478-34747-0 (set) 1. Mosses -- New Zealand -- Identification. I. Title. II. Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. UDC 582.345.16(931) DC 588.20993 DOI: 10.7931/w15y-gz43 This work should be cited as: Fife, A.J. 2020: Brachytheciaceae. In: Smissen, R.; Wilton, A.D. Flora of New Zealand – Mosses. Fascicle 46. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln. http://dx.doi.org/10.7931/w15y-gz43 Date submitted: 9 May 2019 ; Date accepted: 15 Aug 2019 Cover image: Eurhynchium asperipes, habit with capsule, moist. Drawn by Rebecca Wagstaff from A.J. Fife 6828, CHR 449024. Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................................................1 Typification...............................................................................................................................................1 Taxa Brachytheciaceae ............................................................................................................................. 2 Brachythecium Schimp. .....................................................................................................................4 Brachythecium albicans (Hedw.) Schimp. ......................................................................................... 6 Brachythecium campestre (Müll.Hal.) Schimp. ..................................................................................7 Brachythecium fontanum Fife ............................................................................................................9 Brachythecium paradoxum (Hook.f. & Wilson) A.Jaeger .................................................................. 9 Brachythecium plumosum (Hedw.) Schimp. .................................................................................... 11 Brachythecium rutabulum (Hedw.) Schimp. .................................................................................... 12 Brachythecium salebrosum (F.Weber & D.Mohr) Schimp. .............................................................. 13 Brachythecium velutinum (Hedw.) Schimp. ..................................................................................... 14 Eriodon Mont. .................................................................................................................................. 15 Eriodon cylindritheca (Dixon) Dixon & Sainsbury ............................................................................ 16 Eurhynchium Schimp. ......................................................................................................................17 Eurhynchium asperipes (Mitt.) Dixon ...............................................................................................19 Eurhynchium praelongum (Hedw.) Schimp. .................................................................................... 20 Eurhynchium pulchellum (Hedw.) Jenn. .......................................................................................... 21 Eurhynchium speciosum (Brid.) Jur. ................................................................................................22 Palamocladium Müll.Hal. ................................................................................................................. 23 Palamocladium leskeoides (Hook.) E.Britton .................................................................................. 24 Platyhypnidium M.Fleisch. ...............................................................................................................25 Platyhypnidium austrinum (Hook.f. & Wilson) M.Fleisch. ................................................................ 26 Pseudoscleropodium (Limpr.) M.Fleisch. ........................................................................................ 27 Pseudoscleropodium purum (Hedw.) M.Fleisch. ............................................................................. 27 Rhynchostegium Schimp. ................................................................................................................29 Rhynchostegium laxatum (Mitt.) Paris .............................................................................................30 Rhynchostegium muriculatum (Hook.f. & Wilson) Reichardt ...........................................................32 Rhynchostegium tenuifolium (Hedw.) Reichardt ..............................................................................33 Scleropodium Schimp. .....................................................................................................................34 Scleropodium touretii (Brid.) L.F.Koch ............................................................................................. 35 Scorpiurium Schimp. ....................................................................................................................... 36 Scorpiurium cucullatum (Mitt.) Hedenäs ..........................................................................................36 References ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Conventions ..........................................................................................................................................42 Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................................44 Plates ....................................................................................................................................................45 Maps .....................................................................................................................................................61 Index .....................................................................................................................................................63 Image Information .................................................................................................................................64 Introduction The Brachytheciaceae are a large family of pleurocarps with a cosmopolitan distribution. Nine genera and 21 species are recognised in New Zealand, although several of the species and at least two of the genera are clearly adventive here. The Brachytheciaceae are placed in the order Hypnobryales (or Hypnales) in all influential 20th century classifications, but there is little consensus concerning the limits of many genera or, indeed, of the family itself. Consequently, both the family and the generic concepts presented here are traditional, and largely conform to concepts employed in recent Australian treatments. The family representatives are predominantly terrestrial, often robust plants with leaves that have a strong, single costa, and mostly elongate smooth laminal cells. The capsules of the core genus, Brachythecium, are relatively stout, asymmetric, and mostly darkly coloured, with thick-walled exothecial cells, darkly coloured double peristomes, and mostly bluntly conic opercula. Scabrose setae occur in many species of Brachythecium and elsewhere in the family. Many of the genera placed in the family show these sporophytic features, but in others the capsules can be more elongate, the peristomes reduced in complexity, and opercula variable in form. Many taxa exhibit a marked dimorphy between the stem and branch leaves, and this feature is useful in their identification. While some members are specific in their habitat requirements, many are “weedy” and catholic in this respect. Brachythecium, with several regionally weedy species, is sometimes considered to be among the most difficult of all moss genera to confidently identify, particularly when sporophytes are absent. Not all Brachythecium material can be adequately named regionally, and Rhynchostegium, while a smaller genus, poses comparable identification difficulties. Typification The following typification is designated in accordance with the International Code of Nomenclature for Plants, Algae and Fungi. Hypnum huttonii Hampe ex Beckett, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 25: 300 (1893). Lectotype (designated here): N.Z., Westland, Greymouth, W.J. Gulliver s.n., CHR 585861! 1 Brachytheciaceae Plants delicate to robust, forming loose wefts, compact mats, or erect turves, terrestrial, epiphytic, or epilithic. Stems creeping or ascending, loosely and irregularly to densely and pinnately branched, mostly with a central strand, the branches straight or sometimes curved. Leaves mostly crowded in several rows, occasionally complanate, those of stems and branches differentiated or not, mostly erect-spreading, less often imbricate or wide-spreading, occasionally secund, ovate to lanceolate and mostly acuminate, rarely