Two new species of Ulota (Orthotrichaceae, Bryopsida) with multicellular spores, from the Hengduan Mountains, Southwestern China

Abstract

Two new species, Ulota yunnanensis and Ulota gigantospora, are described from Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, China. Both have multicellular spores, a relatively uncommon character in the genus. Differences between the species include growth form and habit, leaf areolation, capsule shape, peristome structure and ornamentation, operculum shape and colour, as well as vaginula and calyptra hairiness. These characters and those discriminating the new species from other ones with similar spore type are discussed and illustrated.

Keywords:

• Endosporic germination
• Taxonomy
• Ulota membranata
• Ulota novo-guinensis
• Ulota yakushimensis

The curators and staff of the herbaria BM, E, MO, NICH, and NY are gratefully acknowledged for specimen loans. RC benefited from a PhD grant and two research visits to BM and NY, all from the Spanish Ministry of Education. This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CGL2007-61389 and CGL2010-15693) and field work by the Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust for the Kunming–Edinburgh–Gothenburg Expedition and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Royal Horticultural Society for the Kunming–Edinburgh Expedition to Sichuan. Colleagues at the Kunming Institute of Botany, particularly De-Zhu Li, Han-Dong Sun, Kai-Yun Guan, Yongping Yang, and Ying Meng, are thanked for organizing the expeditions. We also sincerely thank Lars Hedenäs and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an early version of this paper.

Taxonomic Additions and Changes: Ulota yunnanensis F.Lara, Caparrós & Garilleti, sp. nov., Ulota gigantospora F.Lara, Caparrós & Garilleti, sp. nov.