Bryum campylopodioides Müll. Hal., Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital.

Shirzadian, S., Darzikolaei, S. Akhoondi & Spence, J. R., 2015, Bryum campylopodioides Müll. Hal., a new species for Southwest Asia, Phytotaxa 212 (1), pp. 99-101 : 99-100

Bryum campylopodioides Müll. Hal., Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. , n.s. 3: 95. 1896.

Protologue: Schen-si sept.: Monte Khiulin-san , ditante da Sin-gan-ju 4 giornate a poncute c 2 giornate prima di giungere al “Thae-pei-san”. Jan. 1894, Giraldi 936 ( BM, FI, isotypes) .

Plants pale green to yellow-green, becoming red-brown with age; stems imbricate, not julaceous; leaves ovate, not or weakly decurrent; costa weak below, greenish, becoming strong and colored orange-brown when old, strongly keeled and longly excurrent in long somewhat denticulate awn, awn fragile, easily broken off; distal laminal cells elongate-rhomboidal to hexagonal, 3–4:1 length to width, proximal cells abruptly quadrate to short-rectangular, 1- 2:1, limbidium lacking, margins plane throughout or weakly recurved at base only; dioicous ( Fig. 1 A–F ). Innovation leaves small, very narrowly ovate to lanceolate, with extremely long awns. Perichaetial leaves smaller than vegetative leaves, narrower with a more strongly revolute border and longer awns. Capsules pendulous, pyriform, brown, widemouthed with a neck not exceeding half the length of the capsule, lid mamillate; exostome teeth pale brown, endostome membrane high, processes present, cilia present and appendiculate; spores papillose, 16–20 μm ( Fig. 1 G–J ).

Specimen examined: Iran, W. Azerbaijan province, Piranshahr, Silveh, Mashkan , on soil, 45 o 3’ E 36 o 48’ N, 1970 m, 22.06.2012, M. Eskandari n.s. ( IRAN 0472B ) .

The type collection of this species is from Shaanxi province of north-central China, and remains the only know specimen prior to the find reported here. The newly reported plant differs slightly from the type specimen in that most of the leaves are either not or weakly decurrent, although a few shoots show stronger decurrencies, compared with the fairly strong decurrencies in the Chinese type. This may be a result of differing growth rates, as rapidly elongating shoots can often produce leaves with strong decurrencies.

The Bryaceae is a large cosmopolitan acrocarpous moss family consisting of genera with considerable morphological diversity. Much new research has recently been published on this family, particularly in the genus Bryum ( Cox & Hedderson, 2003; Pederson & Hedenäs, 2002, 2005; Pederson et al., 2007; Spence, 1987, 1996, 2005, 2007; Spence & Ramsay, 1999, 2002). Although some of these workers believe that the classification of the Bryaceae based only on morphological characters cannot be defended, the molecular work to date does not provide clear results relevant to generic classification ( Shaw 2014). Because of these issues, Kürschner & Frey (2011) decided to use the traditional concept of Bryum for purposes of providing usable keys to the bryoflora of the region.

Using the more recent concepts of the group, the species is likely to be an Imbribryum Pederson , because of its laminal areolation, strongly excurrent stiff awn, imbricate leaves, and evenly foliate stems. Bryum campylopodioides appears to be related to a complex of small species in that genus, characterized by their strong long-excurrent awns. This group includes the Asian species B. paradoxum Schwaegr. and B. cognatum Mitt. , as well as the Australasian species B. australe Hampe. It differs from these other species in several characters, including the green to yellow-green color, more or less plane margins, and the longer-excurrent costa.

The new Iranian record of Bryum campylopodioides represents a significant range extension and is an important discovery for the region. Based on past surveys in Iran, 15 taxa were reported new to the Iranian bryoflora by Kürschner (1996). Also, the same author with his co-workers (2000) published an updated list of 121 taxa, of which 24 taxa were new for the Golestan National Park (NE Iran) including eight new species for the country. In another investigation, an annotated checklist of the Iranian bryoflora including 437 taxa (two hornworts, 68 liverworts and 367 mosses) was published by Akhani & Kürschner (2004). Later, Kürschner & Frey (2011) published the important bryophyte flora of Southwest Asia. More recently, Zare et al. (2011) have reported eighteen new mosses from the Hyrcanian forest region (N Iran). Syntrichia norvegica F. Web. was also reported from Alvand mountains in Hamedan province, W Iran ( Fereidounfar et al., 2011), and more recently Shirzadian (2011, 2012) and Shirzadian & Akhoondi (2011) reported additional new records of mosses for the bryoflora of Iran. Currently, based on these surveys and taxonomic work and from the recent literature, the Iranian bryoflora includes 30 species of Bryum s.l. ( Akhani & Kürschner, 2004; Kürschner & Frey, 2011; Shirzadian et al. 2014).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Bryum campylopodioides: A. Fertile dried plants; B. Moist plant; C. Leaf; D. Upper leaf cells; E. Median leaf cells; F. Basal leaf cells; G. Capsule; H. Exostome; I. Endostome; J. Spores.