In the early winter of 2011, as a doctoral student, I was instructed by Professor Zhao Jiancheng to examine specimens of the Bryaceae family and related taxa at the Herbarium of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (PE). There, I first met the long-admired Professor Wu Pengcheng. I was deeply excited, having previously known his name only through literature like Moss Flora of China and Professor Zhao’s frequent mentions—now, I finally encountered him in person.
Gollania pengchengii sp. nov. (Pylaisiaceae) is described from China. The most important diagnostic characters of this species are: (1) distinct stepwise layered stems by annual growth, (2) erect capsules, (3) exostome teeth with smooth outer surface at the lower parts, (4) reduced endostome with rudimentary segments and (5) the presence of a preperistome. A key to the species of Gollania in China is presented.
Plicanthus hirtellus and P. birmensis are morphologically similar liverworts whose taxonomic distinction has long been debated due to overlapping characters. In this study, we examined specimens from Asia and Africa primarily in East Africa, including the type specimen of P. hirtellus, using both morphological and molecular data. Morphologically, P. hirtellus typically bears filamentous cilia on the leaves and has leaf lobes with long uniseriate apices composed of rectangular to linear cells. In contrast, P. birmensis has shorter apices with quadrate to rectangular cells and lacks filamentous cilia. Molecular phylogenetic analyses support the distinction between the two species. However, poorly developed individuals of P. hirtellus may resemble P. birmensis, highlighting the potential for misidentification. We conclude that an integrated approach, combining molecular data with careful morphological assessment of well-developed shoots, is essential for accurate species delimitation within Plicanthus.
As a Chinese bryologist, I am proud that the IAB decided to publish a special issue of Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution honoring Professor Wu Pengcheng, from Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, for his significant contribution to bryology. Professor Wu was born in 1935, and 2025 is the year of his 90th birthday (Figure 1). I am pleased to write a short article about Wu’s activity in bryological research and his contribution to bryology based on the personal contacts between Professor Wu and myself since 1983, when I met Prof. Wu at a meeting in Beijing for the first time.
Bazzania bhutanica, a critically endangered species previously known from only two localities in Bhutan and one locality in India, has now been discovered in another two localities west to Samtse, Bhutan.
Pseudoparaphysanthus ghatensis (Neckeraceae) is described and illustrated from specimens collected from the Nelliyampathy hills in the southern Western Ghats of India. The new species is characterised by small sized plants, leaves with inframarginal limbidia, a partly bistratose leaf margin and a strong costa extending beyond ¾ of leaf length. Its habit resembles especially that of P. bonianus and P. moutieri which, however, have marginal limbidium instead of an inframarginal one. An identification key to all species of Pseudoparaphysanthus is presented.
WU Peng-Cheng was born on June 5, 1935 in Haining, Zhejiang Province, as the second child among three siblings. In 1937, his parents relocated their entire family to Shanghai to escape the war. During his childhood, he was often ill, but his life was relatively comfortable as his father was a dentist. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the Department of Biology at Fudan University in Shanghai, a top institution in China.
Following a bryological investigation of Shiwandashan National Nature Reserve in Guangxi, China, Acromastigum herzogii is reported as a new national record, accompanied by a detailed morphological description. Furthermore, two additional species of Lepidoziaceae, Kurzia borneensis and Zoopsis liukiuensis, are documented. The taxonomically poorly understood species K. borneensis is considered here as a distinct and well-circumscribed taxon, new to mainland China. The genus Zoopsis is recorded for the first time from Guangxi.
Recently, seven new moss families have been proposed within the orders Hypnales and Hookeriales, based on both plastid genome and morphological data (Li et al., 2024). However, five of them are not considered validly published because of a lack of a description or diagnosis in Latin or English according to the Code. We hereby supplement these contents to fulfil the requirement of their valid publication.
The genus Orthotrichum s.l., predominantly found in temperate regions as an epiphytic moss, boasts a large number of species and is widely distributed in China. Despite recent revisions of the genus in China, our understanding of the distribution of species remains inadequate. Over the past five years, we have examined a large number of Orthotrichum s.l. (Lewinskya and Orthotrichum s.str.) specimens from China, enriching our distribution data. We have also gathered county-level geographical information of Chinese Orthotrichum s.l. through accessible literature. Here we report seven new records for Hubei Province: Lewinskya hookeri, L. pulchra, Orthotrichum callistomum, O. pumilum, O. schofieldii, O. subpumilum, and O. vermiferum. These raise the number of Orthotrichum s.l. species known from Hubei from nine to 15, making Hubei province the fourth highest in diversity of this genus in China, after Sichuan, Xizang, and Gansu. The record of Lewinskya speciosa from Hubei is treated as doubtful because we have not yet obtained the specimens cited by previous authors. Based on the specimen data, in addition to the two known diversity centers of Orthotrichum s.l. (Hengduan and Tianshan-Altai mountain regions), we have found a third one, namely the Qinling-Daba Mts. region. Considering that literature data indicates many records in the northeast and southeast regions of China, the data from the specimens we observed is still insufficient, and new areas with high diversity will likely emerge in the future.
The eight species currently attributed to Pylaisiadelpha are revised. Four species are recognized: P. capillacea (reported here new to China), P. duellii, P. tenuirostris and P. tristoviridis (reported here new to U.S.A.). Pylaisiadelpha brasiliensis is transferred to Sematophyllum, as S. prolongirostratum Y.Jia nom. nov.; P. drepanioides, P. yokohamae and P. sharpii are treated as new synonyms of P. tenuirostris and Isopterygium tenerum, respectively. The illustrations and detailed descriptions mainly based on the type specimens are provided. A key to the four species and a list of status of all name placed in Pylaisiadelpha are also presented. Clastobryum cupressinoides is excluded from synonymy of Pylaisiadelpha capillacea and consider as a new synonym of Brotherella henonii.
The new species Cololejeunea subhyalomarginata Thouvenot & Pócs, from New Caledonia, is described and illustrated. It can be distinguished from allied species like C. pseudostephanii Tixier, C. sophiana Tixier or C. elisabethae Meagher & Pócs by 1) falcate leaf lobes, 2) Allorgella-type denticulations, 3) mostly 2 ranked subhyaline border, 4) smooth cell surfaces, 5) no vitta, 6) two sub-equal triangular lobule teeth, 7) 1-celled stylus, and 8) obcordate perianth. The species is endemic to North Province of New Caledonia where it grows very scattered among other epiphylls in the highest elevations of the country.
Stomatal function varies widely across land plants. Fixed apertures in hornworts suggest a primary role in spore discharge and dispersal whereas actively regulated pores control water loss in angiosperms. Many spore-bearing vascular plants exhibit passive aperture movements. Mosses, belonging to an earlier lineage, are anomalous in having supposedly actively controlled apertures. The notion of the acquisition of active regulation early in land plant evolution comes mainly from the presence of stomata-related genes common to all land plants. In stark contrast, only three papers present data on changes in aperture dimensions and these involve very limited sampling of only two taxa, Physcomitrium patens and Funaria hygrometrica, both of which have anomalous unicellular guard cells. To overcome this lack of data, we undertook a rigorous experimental study of stomatal aperture dimensions in mosses to answer the following questions: do apertures in mosses change with sporophyte age? Do apertures respond to external stimuli known to elicit stomatal closure in angiosperms? Are the responses the same in mosses across a broad taxonomic range? Because moss stomata vary greatly in size, to minimize possible biased sampling errors we measured every stoma on every capsule and used vertically split capsules to compare treated and untreated halves. Vascular plant leaves were used as controls. Overall, we measured over 25,000 apertures from 12 moss species. Our results demonstrate unequivocally that moss stomata have fixed apertures and do not respond to external cues. Aperture dimensions are unchanged by all the treatments applied, regardless of the age of the sporophytes and whatever the nature of the stomata in terms of numbers, position, size, guard cell morphology, sporophyte size and position of taxa in the moss tree of life and their ecology. Post mature moss apertures become occluded with additional wall materials and closed stomata are extremely rare. Our split capsule data indicate that previous reports of ABA-induced changes in aperture dimensions in Funaria and Physcomitrium are most probably attributable to insufficient sampling that inadvertently failed to take account of the considerable inter- and intra-sporophyte variations in stomatal dimensions in mosses. The absence of any functional evidence for regulation of gaseous exchange in mosses strongly favours the notion of gradual rather than early acquisition of stomatal function. The principal function of moss stomata seems to be the facilitation of sporophyte desiccation in contrast to the active control of water loss in angiosperms.
Bryophytes remain understudied in the Northeastern Himalayas. The present bryofloristic investigation was carried out in the Kamrup district of Assam, which is an unexplored region of Northeastern Himalaya. Bryophyte samples were collected from 2021 to 2024 in different months. We recorded a total of 126 species belonging to 76 genera under 44 families which included 55 genera representing 90 species of mosses, 19 genera representing 34 species of liverworts, and two genera representing two species of hornworts. The present study found 50 new records for Assam encompassing 34 species of mosses, 15 liverworts, and one hornwort species. These included four moss species reported for the first time in Northeastern Himalaya, namely Ectropothecium kerstanii, Gollania clarescens, Leucophanes glaucum, and Trichosteleum punctipapillosum. Among the recorded nine different substrata, highest number of 37 species were found on moist soil. We also found a highest number of 37 species from an elevation range of 81–100 m elev. Nearly 10 percent of bryophyte species found in the present study area are endemic to India. This study is the first comprehensive documentation of bryophytes of the Kamrup district of Assam and will be helpful in forest conservation policies and management practices.
A new species of Orthotrichum was recently described based on a single collection from the Coquimbo Region of Chile and was then thought to be rare. However, new collections reveal this species as common in central and northern Chile, and since it was described on a single specimen, here we present amendments to the original description. Some of the inaccurately described morphological characters provided in the original description are of diagnostic importance for differentiating this endemic species within closest species of the genus. In addition, we provide data about the ecology of this taxon and an updated distribution map.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Marchantia emarginata subsp. cuneiloba (Marchantiaceae) was determined. The chloroplast genome was 122,531 bp in length and displayed a typical circular structure composed of a large single-copy region, a small single-copy region, and a pair of inverted repeats. It contains 128 genes, namely 89 protein-coding genes, 35 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. Both substitution-based and indel-based phylogenetic trees support the sister relationship of M. emarginata subsp. cuneiloba with M. inflexa. Comparative analysis of chloroplast genome also reveals the usefulness of simple sequence repeat (SSR) patterns for classification in the genus Marchantia.
A unique moss species, Pseudohypnella verrucosa with two kinds of papillae on laminal cells and double costae reaching to midleaf is newly reported from Vietnam. Its familial position in the Symphyodontaceae is newly proposed based on molecular analysis using ITS1&2 and trnL-F and supported by its morphology.
Riccia anguillarum Cargill, is described from Western Australia. This endemic species is distinguished by a fleshy, succulent thallus (similar to southern African species of Riccia in section Spongodes, group ‘Vesiculosa’). It is also unique within Riccia and the Ricciaceae in having a thallus of multilayered air spaces and a bi-layered capsule wall. A description of the new species with images, illustrations and map of its locations is provided.
This represents an update to the 2010 checklist of all hornworts and liverworts reported for Java. The checklist includes i) new information published since 2010, ii) previously overlooked historical literature as well as iii) corrected unintentional mistakes that were published in 2010. We now report that the hornwort and liverwort flora of Java consists of 608 known and accepted species as well as several invalid names that we can not place to any taxon. The updated checklist includes 35 recorded species that are considered dubious and another 157 species are excluded from the flora of Java.
